ENSCHEDE, 06/03/10 - Immigrant voters provided important support for Labour (PvdA) in Wednesday's local elections, but this support is now causing unrest among PvdA council members who are losing their jobs to immigrant candidates.

The majority of immigrants voted for the PvdA. They generally choose a compatriot. As a result, Turkish and Moroccan candidates put at unelectable levels on the party candidate lists were nonetheless elected in Wednesday's elections. Thanks to a large number of preference votes from compatriots, they elbowed aside the white candidates above them on the lists.

This has given rise to turmoil within the PvdA. "We have become the Party for the Immigrants" rather than the Party for Labour, said Andre Boersma bluntly (in Dutch: Partij van de Allochtonen and Partij van de Arbeid, both PvdA in short). Boersma was a PvdA council member in Enschede, but now has to leave.

The social democrats won 9 seats in Enschede on Wednesday, of which four will be filled by immigrants that were low down on the election list, but climbed spectacularly thanks to preference votes. Of these four, only one, Shridath Salikram, has council experience. Preference votes also put him on the municipal council four years ago.

The same scenario is playing out in Helmond. Peter van Stiphout, Mirjam van der Pijl, Stijn Smeulders and Roy Boermeester have been elbowed out by Muslims: Nacati Kaygisiz, Abdel Tijani, Karim Ajouaou and Mohammed Chahim.

In Helmond, five out of the six PvdA council members will now be of immigrant origin, Eindhovens Dagblad newspaper reported. The biggest surprise is number 21 on the list, Nacati Kaygisiz, a policeman of Moroccan origin.

The local PvdA leader is also an immigrant, Seyit Yeyden, but he is not happy with this development. "Let's face it: it is not a good mix this way. A number of outstanding candidates have now been elbowed out. We also have no woman in the party. But still, the voter decides."