Approximately 110,000 people are eligible to vote in the upcoming elections for the Parliament of Curacao. In 2016, the number was 120,456, meaning there are now 10,500 fewer eligible voters.
The main reasons for this decline include the fact that more people are leaving the island, combined with fewer people moving to Curacao (CBS). Fertility rates (the number of children a woman brings into the world) have fallen from 2.2 to 1.7, according to the United Nations Population Fund. There are signs that the increasing cost of living will contribute to even fewer young people staying (BBC-The Global Story, 30/12/24).
The consequences are devastating. There are not enough people available to work. Job fairs seeking workers for the refinery and the hospitality sector (HORECA) have shown that fewer young people are entering the workforce compared to older individuals and retirees.
Furthermore, the "cost of doing business" is rising, purchasing power, consumption, and competitiveness are declining, pension funds are becoming increasingly insolvent, mental health issues (especially loneliness among the elderly) are rising, and the "brain drain" is drastically increasing.
It is extremely difficult to get political attention for this issue, as the population changes are not sudden but incremental. Climate change is also a factor.
Since 2011, I have been speaking about this in Parliament and Forti without success. Attention to the population issue does not have "electoral return." More attention is paid to promises of work permits without specifying who will benefit, pension increases without recognizing that a shrinking population is paying for them, large sums of money spent on sports stadiums that are poorly maintained, and neglecting the fact that there are fewer young people available to play sports.
The political parties that have already presented their ideas for the election do not address population and demographic management. How can we determine "what kind of Curacao we want" and "who and how we want to achieve this" if we are not talking about our human resources? Aren’t people central to this?
Meanwhile, we will continue to be stuck with incapable politicians and an increasing number of people leaving the country.
Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia & Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He’s from Curaçao and has a MBA from the University of Iowa. (USA).
