Serious business

Kranshi Friday was Nomination Day in Curaçao (see related story) and it’s interesting to see how many candidates are on lists of different parties than the ones with which they ran only five months ago. This should remove any remaining doubts regarding a lack of maturity and consequently stability in Dutch Caribbean politics.

What’s more, a court case was filed in Willemstad by two islanders who resided in the Netherlands but came back to participate in the early election when they heard about it, but were unable to do so. The reason is that the voter registry was closed on February 17 retroactively per February 8, because a National Decree had been adopted to dissolve Parliament effective May 11 and go back to the polls on April 28, which automatically meant the lists had to be submitted by March 11 and the registry closed a minimum 30 days before that.

While the judge did not deem all this unreasonable, it can hardly be called elegant. These are the kinds of problems that occur with so many changes in allegiance that two elections must be held in little more than six months.

Another example is today’s report out of Bonaire. It turns out the two Island Council members who recently withdrew their support for Government have now re-joined the same MPB-led coalition.

Talk about confusion. When will those called on to represent the people and lead these islands by example begin to realise that governing is serious business?