Calls by campaigners for voters to give preference votes to women in last week’s European elections appear to have paid off, with three women leapfrogging other candidates to win seats in Brussels.

Samira Rafaela from D66, Liesje Schreinemacher from the right-wing Liberal VVD and Kim van Sparrentak from GroenLinks have all been elected to the European parliament on the basis of preference votes.

Wat. Een. Weken. Super om alle reacties te zien. Net niet de 50 procent gehaald. Welke man geeft z’n zetel op 👀. Ik weet nog wel een vrouw die nu een zetel mist. https://t.co/cIBgE42w0C

— Devika 🐙 (@devikagauri) May 28, 2019

‘What a week,’ said Devika Partiman, one of the campaign organisers, on Twitter. ‘Not quite the 50%, so which man is going to give up his place? I know a woman who missed a seat.’

Two of the successful woman overtook a man to win a seat, but Sparrentak’s seat is at the expense of another female candidate.

Why vote for a woman? The campaign trying to stir up politics

The shift means 12 of the Netherlands’ 26 MEPs will be female when the new parliament is sworn in.

Other female candidates, such as Kati Piri, number 4 on the PvdA list, also gathered enough preference votes to take a seat even if the party had only won three seats. In the event, the PvdA emerged as the largest Dutch party, with six MEPs.