THE HAGUE, 24/01/03 - Labour (PvdA) siphoned off large numbers of voters from the Christian democrats (CDA) and leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) in the parliamentary elections. The CDA offset its losses completely via the inflow of former Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) supporters, according to research bureau Interview-NSS.

PvdA siphoned away 230,000 voters who chose the CDA last May, and about 216,000 former GroenLinks supporters. The PvdA in addition won the support of 370,000 voters who stayed home in the previous elections.

The CDA collected 250,000 votes from former stay-at-homes and 230,000 from former LPF supporters. The LPF however lost even more votes to the conservatives (VVD): 290,000.

Remarkably, 180,000 former VVD voters switched to CDA, while 175,000 former CDA voters crossed over to the VVD. Possibly, many VVD supporters voted CDA to prevent the PvdA becoming the biggest party, while many CDA voters switched to the VVD to offer a rightwing counterbalance to a possible PvdA-CDA coalition.