current Minister for Integration, Immigration and Asylum Affairs was last to put forth her candidacy, after a lot of attention from the media. Her candidacy is not backed by the VVD leadership. She is often polled as the most popular minister within the cabinet and is backed by many individual VVD members. Verdonk entered politics in 2003, when she became minister, she had only been member of the VVD for three years, she had been active within the Pacifist Socialist Party and had voted for the Labour Party before 2002. Verdonk is generally seen to be representative to the conservative and populist wing of the VVD. She has proposed cutting taxes and has appealed to the entrepreneurial spirit. She is known as Iron Rita, for her stances on immigration and integration and her steadfast politics. She has recruited former Kay van der Linden as her campaign manager, who was also involved in Pim Fortuyn's 2002 election campaign. Verdonk has never been a Member of the House of Representatives and could therefore according to Dutch law not enter parliament if she would have won the internal election. Results An independent committee oversaw the elections. 28,788 people voted in this election, which was 74% of the eligible VVD members. They voted mostly by telephone and via Internet. The full results were presented on May 31, 2006, in Hotel Okura in Amsterdam, where it was announced that Mark Rutte obtained 51.5% of the vote and won the election. Rita Verdonk came in second, with 45.5% of the vote. Jelleke Veenendaal obtained 3.0% of the vote. It is generally expected that Mark Rutte will step down as staatssecretaris and become fractievoorzitter of the VVD parliamentary party because according to the VVD's Liberal Manifesto the party's leader should either be Prime Minister of the Netherlands or the Parliamentary leader in the House of Representatives. References People's Party for Freedom and Democracy 2006 elections in the Netherlands Political party leadership elections in the Netherlands People's Party for Freedom and Democracy leadership election