AMSTERDAM: Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was on track to win a fourth term in office on Wednesday, with his conservative party leading a first exit poll in elections dominated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Rutte’s VVD party was projected to take 35 out 150 seats in the lower house, a clear mandate to form a new coalition government. The pro-EU, centre-left D-66 was seen coming in second place at 27 seats, the exit poll showed.
The initial numbers from the poll indicated that Rutte will need to form a coalition with at least two other parties to get a majority of 76 seats in parliament.
Among major parties, the anti-Islam Freedom Party of lawmaker Geert Wilders was set to lose 3 seats, coalition member Christian Democrats lost 5, and Labour was flat.
The Netherlands is one of the first major European Union economies to hold elections during the COVID-19 crisis, and voting was held over three days to prevent spreading of the virus, which has killed more than 16,000 people in the nation of 17 million.
With a night-time curfew in place due to continuing high infection rates, and a ban on public gatherings during the day, the campaign was conducted mostly through television debates.
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