BONAIRE--Antillean Governor Frits Goedgedrag has annulled Bonaire's Island Ordinance for a Constitutional Referendum on March 26 at the request of that island's Lt. Governor, as it is "in conflict with the Human Rights Treaty and the interest of the Dutch Kingdom."
The Governor said his decision was in line with the advice of a United Nations (UN) delegation that visited Bonaire at the end of last year in connection with the referendum plans of the new ADB/Nicolaas (ex-UPB) coalition that had ousted the UPB Executive Council earlier that year.
Goedgedrag was of the opinion that allowing only Dutch citizens not born in the Netherlands Antilles, but residing on the island before 2007, to vote lacked objective justification. He used as an example the fact that someone who had been born in St. Maarten and had moved to Bonaire on February 1, 2010, would be able to participate, but someone who had been born in Aruba (which left the Netherlands Antilles in 1986) and had living in Bonaire since January 2, 2007, would not.
In the Governor's view, this was an unreasonable restriction of voting rights.
He also agreed with Lt. Governor Glenn Thode that the question to be asked and options offered in the referendum, according to the ordinance passed in the Island Council by the ADB/Nicolaas majority despite protests from the UPB opposition, were unclear and in conflict with the general interest. They do not offer the population a "free and real choice" and, as a result, justice is not done to the right of self-determination.
Goedgedrag said the proposed referendum followed from the earlier referendum of September 10, 2004, in which the majority chose for direct ties with the Netherlands. "It would have been [the thing] to ask the people of Bonaire if the execution given to that result by the former Executive Council was in agreement with the choice made in 2004, as was, for example, done with the referendum in Curaçao."
"With the now-determined question, there is a great risk that because of an unclear outcome of the referendum in Bonaire, the constitutional restructuring process for all islands would be seriously delayed. That would be unreasonably damaging to the interests of the other islands and the Kingdom partners," the Governor said in a release.
