REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, THE HAGUE -- The Dutch go to the polls to elect provincial representatives on Wednesday in a vote that could paralyse efforts by premier Mark Rutte's coalition to push reforms through the Senate.

More than 12.7 million citizens can vote across the Netherlands' 12 provinces, with the 570 officials who win able to decide on May 26 who sits in the Dutch upper house for the next four years.

Previously something of a rubber-stamp body, the Senate has turned into a political battleground that now has the potential to topple Rutte's ruling Liberal-Labour government, analysts say.

The coalition already has to rely on the goodwill of opposition parties to squeeze legislation through the Senate, and that will become even more of a challenge if things go badly for them on Wednesday.

Currently, the coalition has 30 seats and gets help from parties such as the progressive D66 and two small Christian parties to secure a 38-seat majority in the 75-seat Senate.

"If the ruling coalition does badly and is unable to muster a majority in the Senate, the government will stall," Kees Aarts, political professor at Twente University, told AFP.

But other opposition parties, including Rutte's previous coalition ally the Christian Democrats (CDA), have not pledged their backing.

An impasse would "have the potential to topple the government," Aarts told.

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