2006 Democrats 66 leadership election

The 2006 Democrats 66 leadership election was called to elect the new leader of the Democrats 66 after incumbent Boris Dittrich announced his retirement from national politics. Dittrich, who had been the leader of the party since the resignation of Thom de Graaf on 22 January 2003, did not stand for the leadership election. Alexander Pechtold won the election, beating Lousewies van der Laan and six others.
Background.
The "lijsttrekker" election had been advanced to an earlier date under pressure of the party's largest regional sections. Boris Dittrich, parliamentary leader of D66 until February 2006, stepped down. He came under heavy criticism after the political debate on sending Dutch troops to Uruzgan. He was criticized for making tactical errors to get political support for the mission, which D66 itself opposed. He was succeeded by Van der Laan. Advancing the date of the lijsttrekker election would allow D66 more time to find its ideological course before the next national election.
Candidates.
The other candidates were:
Procedure.
A congress was held in The Hague on 24 June 2006. Eligible D66 members could vote for a candidate in two ways, either they filled in the mail-in ballot they received on 8 June before 23 June, or they made their choice clear on the day of the congress. Only D66 members who had paid their membership dues before 29 May 2006 could vote.
Results.
Five counting rounds were necessary to elect the "lijsttrekker". Alexander Pechtold was voted the new "lijsttrekker". In the final round he received 2,009 of the 3,823 votes, 52.6% of the total in the sixth count of the election. The runner-up was Lousewies van der Laan, obtaining 1,752 votes, 45.8% of the total. 62 votes were declared invalid. In the first round Pechtold obtained 1,860 out of 3,905 votes (47.6%), Lousewies van der Laan 1,662 votes (42.6%) and Hein van Meeteren 182 votes (4.7%).