Seven parties submitted candidate lists as expected for the January 9 snap election, three of which are currently not represented in Parliament. Today, Friday, they must get endorsement from 136 eligible voters to participate.
If they do, there will be a total of 112 candidates vying for 15 Parliament seats or 7.8 per seat, making the mathematical odds of being elected rather slim. It’s all about personal votes and how many seats the list they are on ends up with.
The biggest threshold for parties is getting close to – based on recent turnout percentages – 1,000 votes needed to earn the first seat outright, which qualifies them for possible residual seats. This, along with the list endorsement process for “new parties”, serves to prevent too much political disintegration.
Since country status was achieved per 10-10-10 no single party has obtained an absolute majority of eight seats, requiring coalition governments. It is often claimed that the latter promote putting too much water in the wine rather than executing a clear mandate allowing for decisive action, but, for example, in Aruba an all-AVP government still had plenty of internal issues.
The other side of this argument is that coalitions have built-in checks and balances, with the tendency to seek reasonable compromise and a balanced approach. Or, as some have put it in the past, “at least they keep an eye on each other.”
