Jetten said his D66 liberal party had achieved a historic result after vote analysis indicated it could be beaten.

Dutch centrist leader Rob Jetten said he was "very confident" of being able to put together a government after his party's strong showing in parliamentary elections that saw Geert Wilders' anti-Islam Freedom Party lose ground. With most of the votes counted from Wednesday's election, which was seen as a test…

The Netherlands witnessed a night of political surprises as the parliamentary election produced an unexpectedly close result between two rival forces: the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), led by Geert Wilders, and the centrist-liberal Democrats 66 (D66), led by 38-year-old Rob Jetten. With more than 98 percent of votes counted, both parties stood at 26 seats each in the 150-member parliament, separated by just over 2,000 votes.

Rob Jetten is in pole position to become the new prime minister.

The centrist D66 party, led by Rob Jetten, defied expectations and won the same number of seats as the Party For Freedom, led by Geert Wilders.

The D66 has won the election. Rob Jetten’s party can no longer be overtaken by the PVV with the uncounted votes remaining, according to an analysis by the ANP Election Service of the municipal results. There is also a chance that D66 will pick up one more seat by the time the ballots have been tallied.Each currently are projected to send 26 politicians to fill the 150 available seats in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament. This is because of the proportionate distribution of seats determined by the total number of ballots submitted.