General elections were held in the Netherlands on 5 July 1922.[1] They were the first elections held under universal suffrage, which became reality after the acceptance of a proposal by Henri Marchant in 1919 that gave women full voting rights.[2] Almost all major parties had a woman elected. The number of female representatives increased from one to seven. Only the Anti-Revolutionary Party principally excluded women from the House of Representatives. Another amendment to the electoral law increased the electoral threshold from 0.5% to 0.75%,[3] after six parties had won seats with less than 0.75% of the vote in the previous elections.
The Social Democratic Workers' Party lost two seats,[4] whilst left-wing splinter parties also suffered losses, and went from four to two seats.
Several liberal groups had merged in 1921 to form the Liberal State Party, but lost further seats as they were reduced from fifteen to only ten. However, a new Liberal Party led by the 85 year old Samuel van Houten, won a seat. Van Houten himself did not take the seat, which was instead occupied by his representative, Lizzy van Dorp.
The Free-thinking Democratic League maintained, against most expectations, their five seats, whilst of the remaining splinter parties, only the Peasants' League was able to survive, rising from one to two seats.
![Azure, billetty Or a lion with a coronet Or armed and langued Gules holding in his dexter paw a sword Argent hilted Or and in the sinister paw seven arrows Argent pointed and bound together Or. [The seven arrows stand for the seven provinces of the Union of Utrecht.] The shield is crowned with the (Dutch) royal crown and supported by two lions Or armed and langued gules. They stand on a scroll Azure with the text (Or) "Je Maintiendrai" (French for "I will maintain".)](File:State_coat_of_arms_of_the_Netherlands.svg)
