“Pueblo Soberano” (PS) wants European Dutchmen to live in Curaçao at least five years before they are allowed to vote in local elections (see related story). The argument is that they need to have
built up ties with the community before they can help decide on its future.
However, constitutional expert Douwe Boersma told the Amigoe newspaper this is against the Constitution and the Kingdom Charter. In article 43 the former states that Parliament is chosen directly by residents of the Dutch nationality having reached the age of 18.
Article 46 of the charter says the representative bodies within the kingdom are chosen by the residents of the respective countries, also Dutch citizens, who have reached an age to be determined by the countries that may not be higher than 25.
The electoral regulation does include certain limitations, but according to Boersma these are of a more technical nature. The PS fraction reportedly had submitted a proposal in Parliament to adjust the ordinance concerned.
In the expert’s view one would have to change the requirement of residency in Curaçao’s constitution, which demands a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The same goes for the Parliaments of the Netherlands, Aruba and St. Maarten that all have to approve a change in the charter, as must the Kingdom Council of Ministers dominated by Dutch cabinet members.
Of course, Dutch electoral law does permit non-citizens who have resided legally in the Netherlands for five years to vote in municipal elections. That recently also was the case with the referendum in Bonaire.
Nevertheless, this is quite different than what PS is suggesting, because the latter involves Dutch citizenship. Boersma says considering the large number of long-time immigrants who were not naturalised living on the island, such an alternative might actually be worth discussing.
Early 2010 then-Antillean Governor Frits Goedgedrag actually blocked a referendum the way Bonaire wanted to hold it at the time, because Dutchmen not born in the – since dismantled – Netherlands Antilles would be allowed to participate only if they had moved to the island before January 1, 2007.
Rather than constantly wasting energy on coming up with things that have the potential to further divide the kingdom partners, politicians on both sides of the ocean would do well do focus more on what binds them. In reality there is legally no such thing as a Curaçao, St. Maarten, Aruba or the Netherlands citizen; they are all Dutch passport holders and subjects of the Kingdom.
