WILLEMSTAD--In all probability the elections for the Island Council to become the new Parliament of Country Curaçao will be held somewhere mid-June. In the political corridors in Willemstad there is talk of June 11 or 18.
One of the reasons to hold the elections in June is that many families will be spending their holidays abroad during the school vacation in July/August. To hold the elections after the holidays would be too late, as the Island Territories Curaçao and St. Maarten will acquire the status of country per October 10.
This explains the serious consideration to hold the elections in June. However, this would imply that the nomination for the elections should take place the required sixty days before, which is sometime in April.
The latter is only a few weeks after the new Central Government and Antillean Parliament will have taken office. The election would also be less than six months after the recent parliamentary elections of January 22.
The Island Council is yet to take a final decision on the election date.
With the shifting of the central point of government administration, due to the massive transfer of tasks and authorities of the Central Government to the Island Territories, the position of those Island Territories will fundamentally change, hence the importance of holding elections.
During the Political Steering Committee Constitutional Changes of July 24, 2009, Curaçao and St. Maarten had indicated that it would be advisable to hold snap elections at island-level in view of the preparation for country status, in connection with the way content is given to the representative entities at the start of the new constitutional relations,.
Holding snap elections of the Island Council also plays a role in the realisation of the Constitutions for the new countries Curaçao and St. Maarten. One of the conditions stipulates that the draft constitution should be determined by an island ordinance and be accepted by a two-thirds majority votes.
If the draft is accepted with a majority less than two-thirds of the cast votes, the Island Council should be dissolved and a new Island Council elected. That newly elected Island Council could then accept the draft constitution with a normal majority if needed.
The federal ordinance for amendment of the Islands Regulation Netherlands Antilles ERNA that should enable the Island Councils of the Island Territories Curaçao and St. Maarten to be dissolved separately and prematurely (Transition arrangement early elections Island Councils Curaçao and St. Maarten) will be discussed in the Central Committee of the Antillean Parliament next week.
