Via Sunday's Zaman (h/t Turkish Digest):
One of the five candidates is Nebahat Albayrak, who moved to the Netherlands in 1970 after being born in Sarkışla in 1968. For years now, Albayrak has been the most visible and successful Dutch politician with Turkish roots. She was a member of parliament from 1998 until 2007 before becoming a junior minister responsible for Justice in the last Balkenende cabinet. In 2010 she was the number two on the Labour Party list behind Cohen. Now she wants to go for number one.
Polls show that two of her male competitors are doing better but because of the peculiar voting system used, some analysts predict that Albayrak stands a good chance of ending up on top. That is because members will not only be asked to indicate who their favorite party leader is, but also who their second and third options are. Albayrak most probably will not get the most number one votes, but will gather a lot of second preferences. These might bring her victory in the end because with five candidates running, it is not likely that any candidate will get more than 50 percent of the votes in the first round.
Having a Dutch Turkish woman as the leader of one of the established parties would be a welcome answer to the rising tide of Islamophobia that is so often associated with the Netherlands these days.(source)
