It's official; the authority to execute Curaçao's upcoming early elections has been placed in the hands of Governor Lucille George-Wout by the Kingdom Council of Ministers, after the Council of State gave a positive advice to do so (see related story). Ironically, April 1 marked 80 years since the people of the overseas Dutch territory "Curaçao and other islands" (later known as the now-no-longer-existent Netherlands Antilles) gained the right to elect their own representatives, former PAIS leader Alex Rosaria pointed out.
Just 10 of the 15 parliamentarians could be chosen in 1937, six from Curaçao, two from Aruba and one each from Bonaire and the Windward Islands (St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba). The other five were still appointed by the colonial power.
Moreover, only men 25 or older, making at least 1,200 guilders per year, without tax debts and having enjoyed a minimum of seven years schooling were initially able to vote. Women did not have active voting rights, but could stand as candidates.
In Rosaria's view that important historic achievement had now been squandered by the latest developments leading to an intervention of the Netherlands. He attributes this to a lack of local political maturity.
Both Curaçao and St. Maarten have experienced several so-called “constitutional standoffs” in recent times, whereby a government that loses majority backing resigns but also sends home Parliament and calls snap elections. While this approach remains controversial when there is a new legislative majority wanting to take over, one must keep in mind that in all these cases so-called "ship-jumpers" of coalition parties who went independent to force a change in government played a major role.
The latter probably had a lot to do with George-Wout signing into law the National Decree with which the outgoing Koeiman Cabinet sent the legislature home before stepping down and scheduled elections for April 28. She did so despite having received a "statement of willingness" to form a new government signed by 11 of the 21 parliamentarians.
However, the governor did allow that same MFK-led group with meanwhile 12 seats to form the current interim cabinet pending the result of the vote. But when this transitional government subsequently tried to cancel the election with a decree of its own, she refused to cooperate and submitted it to the Kingdom Council of Ministers for annulment instead.
The MFK/KdNT/PS/MP/Braam/Dannawi finally gave in and the proposal was withdrawn, but by then The Hague no longer trusted the matter and put the governor in charge of the election, eight decades later. Talk about going back to zero.
