The Liberal party VVD led by outgoing Prime minister Mark Dutte has won the Dutch general elections, showed the final exit poll half an hour after the voting bureaus closed Wednesday night.

The VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy) wins 41 out of the total 150 parliamentary seats, while the Labor Party (PvdA) gets 40 seats, exit polls showed.

The right-wing populist Party of Freedom PVV of Geert Wilders went down from 24 seats in the previous elections in 2010 to 13 now. The CDA (Christian Democrats) also declined to 13 from 21, Socialist Party SP retained its original 15 seats.

Meanwhile, the Democratic D66 garnered two seats more to 12 and the other seats were divided among GroenLinks, the Christian parties CU, the SGP, the Party for elderly people 50Plus and the PvdD (Party of Animals).

The VVD, which also won the elections two years ago, was leading the polls for weeks, but the PvdA headed by Diederik Samsom made a strong comeback. It finally ended up in a big battle between the center-left and the center-right.

The two could forge a majority government together, but the idea was not prefered by either before the elections. The last time they joined hands was in 1998, when they formed a government with D66.