THE HAGUE, 08/07/06 - The Lower House has 13 parties, as of Friday. Candidate MP Gonny van Oudenallen was sworn in as one-person party.

The one-person party of Van Oudenallen, or Gonny Group as some quipped in the corridors, emerged Friday because Pim Fortuyn List (LPF) refused to embrace her. Van Oudenallen is controversial because she is said to have fiddled her expenses as an Amsterdam city council member.

A vacancy arose in LPF because MP Margot Kraneveldt announced this week she was switching to Labour (PvdA). In the runup to the early elections on 22 November, Kraneveld resigned as an MP with immediate effect.

The procedures require that the seat of a departing MP must be taken by the next person on the party's list for the last elections. This candidate is allowed to refuse the seat, but the party does not conversely have the right to select another candidate.

The LPF thus arrived at Van Oudenallen. Because she "was insufficiently able to show" that she committed no fraud, "we decided not to admit her," said LFP leader Gerard van As.

As Van Oudenallen was sticking to her right to Kraneveldt's seat, she immediately launched a one-person party Friday. There were already three: MPs Wilders, Nawijn and Lazrak. The House also has 9 'normal' parties.

The chances of Van Oudenallen being re-elected on 22 November appear to be zero. But she can then still pocket a - partial - salary for two years.