Netherlands voters go to the polls

Voters in the Netherlands go to the polls for the second time in less than a year today in an election that could return the centre-left to power and produce the first Jewish prime minister in Dutch history.

Eight months after the murder of the populist anti-immigration campaigner, Pim Fortuyn, the party he founded will be the main casualty in today's poll as voters punish it for the constant feuding within its ranks.

The Labour Party (PvdA), which lost power last May as thousands of its traditional supporters backed Mr Fortuyn's LPF party, could be about to make a surprise return to government, possibly as the biggest bloc in the new parliament.

Much of the credit for PvdA's new-found strength goes to the party's charistmatic 39-year-old party leader, Wouter Bos, who conducted a slick campaign, performing well in TV debates.

However, Mr Bos has said he does not want to be prime minister if the PvdA wins, preferring to stay in parliament and the party has nominated the mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, who is seen as a more experienced political operator.

If elected to the post, Mr Cohen would make history by becoming the first Jewish premier in Dutch history. The Netherlands lost 70 per cent of its Jewish population during the Nazi occupation of World War II, and Mr Cohen's grandparents were among the victims of the Holocaust.

The PvdA has staged a remarkable and unexpected revival since last May's elections, when it was ejected from office after almost a decade in coalition governments. The subsequent administration, led by the former Christian Democrat premier, Jan-Peter Balkenende and including the Mr Fortuyn's party Lijst Pim Fortuyn (LPF) and the VVD Liberals, collapsed last October amid bickering.

At the time it was expected that Mr Balkenende would form the next government with the Liberals but without the VVD, an outcome which remains possible. Most polls show the PvdA and the Christian Democrats running neck and neck, but one survey predicted the PvdA would increase its seats from 23 to 42, becoming the biggest party in the Netherlands, ahead of the Christian Democrats on 40. These findings suggest that disillusioned Fortuyn voters have returned to the PvdA in droves.

In any event, today's results will be followed by weeks of negotiations as the nation's senior politicians try to form a coalition.

- INDEPENDENT