Curacao votes for more autonomy

by Stephanie van den Berg

Monday, April 11, 2005

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP): The largest of the five Dutch Antilles islands, Curacao, on Friday overwhelmingly voted to become an autonomous state within the kingdom of the Netherlands while tiny Sint Eustatius chose to uphold the status quo, Dutch media reported Saturday.

In the referendum in Curacao, 68 percent voted for their island to step out of the Dutch Antilles government and become an autonomous state or so-called Status Aparte. Of the 114,500 eligible voters, 54.4 percent cast their votes.

Twenty-three percent voted for closer ties with the Netherlands with only five percent backing the option of full independence.
In Sint Eustatius, an island of just 3,000 inhabitants, 76 percent of voters chose to remain part of the Dutch Antilles, while 20 percent voted for closer ties with the Netherlands. One percent voted for independence. Turnout among the 1,400 eligible voters was 55 percent.

Dutch Minister of Kingdom Relations Alexander Pechtold told the ANP news agency that he welcomed the clear outcome of the referendum. The minister believes the results are "a good basis for further talks" about the relations within the kingdom of the Netherlands.

The Dutch Antilles is made up of five islands, two in the Lesser Antilles north of Venezuela, and three in the Leeward Islands east of Puerto Rico. They are respectively Curacao, the most populated and Bonaire, Sint Maarten, which is half Dutch and half French, Sint Eustatius and Saba.

Although the islands are an integral part of the kingdom of the Netherlands they have their own governments.

Curacao and Sint Eustatius were the last of the islands to hold referendums on their political future.

In May 2000 a majority of voters in Sint Maarten chose a Status Aparte, while in late 2004 Bonaire and Saba voted to become part of the Netherlands.

Over the past few years there has been little political unity in the five islands and most are in favour of disbanding the Dutch Antilles government. Several of the smaller islands feel that too much attention and money from the Netherlands is lavished on Curacao.

As Sint Eustatius is the only one of the five islands that has chosen to remain in the Dutch Antilles it is not clear what will happen with the outcome of the referendum.

"We have to negotiate about the meaning of the vote," Hyden Gittens, the president of the central polling station on Sint Eustatius told ANP.

Even though local authorities have announced that the referendum results are binding, the government in The Hague has the final say. The Netherlands has said it is willing to review its relationship with the islands of the Dutch Antilles but the details have yet to be hammered out.

According to the NRC-Handelsblad newspaper The Hague believes the referendum would only be binding if one of the islands had chosen independence. In July the parties have planned a conference overhauling the kingdom relations. After the conference comes up with a plan, that will still have to be approved by the Dutch parliament and the parliament of the Dutch Antilles.

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