Representatives of the Electoral Councils and Central Voting Bureaux of the Dutch Kingdom.
Central Voting Bureau Chairman Jason Rogers signs the final agreement.
Electoral Council Vice-Chairwoman Cela Richardson-Nicolaas signs on to the agreement.
WILLEMSTAD--The electoral bodies of the kingdom have agreed to forge closer contact.
This comes after a two-day conference held in Curaçao this week that resulted in the signing of a final agreement that calls for the agencies charged with ensuring free and fair elections in their parts of the kingdom agreeing “to keep meeting periodically” and to “maintain contact from time to time.”
St. Maarten was represented at the conference by Central Voting Bureau Chairman Jason Rogers and Vice Chairwoman Tamara Richardson, and Electoral Council Vice Chairwoman Cela Richardson-Nicholaas and member Linda Richardson.
Other delegates were Glenn Thodé of Electoral Council and Main Voting Bureau of Aruba, Raymond Romer (Curaçao Main Voting Bureau), Jan Kees Wiebenga (the Netherlands Electoral Council).
The goal of the conference for the agencies to get acquainted and exchange experiences with their independent positions within their countries’ governance apparatus was a main point of interest.
All organisations concluded that the conference was “a success” and expressed wishes to keep in close contact and even expand this contact to exchange experiences and expertise, according to the signed final statement of the conference.
The organisations underlined in their discussions and on paper the importance of free and honest elections, and are of the opinion that an independent electoral organisation is essential in this regard.
Besides exchanging concrete experiences, the conference explored the quality of the voter's registry, reporting and transparency, public order, finances of political parties, education and information, digitization of aspects of the electoral process, advisory function of the electoral organisation of the processes and dispute settlement.
