CDA councilor Margriet van de Vooren in De Bilt was removed from the list of candidates for the municipal elections at the very last moment. She spread bad blood by voting against the party line against a controversial housing plan, which caused problems for the CDA alderman. The plan could no longer count on a council majority and was brushed aside.
Van de Vooren tells RTV Utrecht that her fundamental doubts were known, but that in her opinion it was impossible to talk about it. The CDA was surprised and shocked by her dissenting vote and removed her from the electoral list last night. Van de Vooren was the intended number two of the CDA. She calls the measure disproportionate and believes that she has been wronged.
Also read: Vote against housing plan Hessingterrein De Bilt costs CDA members the head
Article 129 of the Constitution states about the municipal council: “Members vote without burden.” This means that a councilor cannot let someone else dictate how he or she should vote. A representative of the people must make a choice according to his own insight and conviction.
Municipal councilors in the Netherlands are directly elected by the people. The terms ‘political party’ or ‘fraction’ are not even mentioned in the Constitution. Group discipline, in which councilors let their choices depend on the party leadership, is therefore also seen as an infringement of the voting freedom of individual representatives.
Source: The Constitution