WILLEMSTAD--Parties were unable to reach an agreement on the establishing of mutual election observers within the Kingdom during the Inter-Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom (IPKO) which ended in Curaçao on Friday.
Especially the Dutch Parliamentary delegation, consisting of members of the Second and First Chambers, had pushed for a concrete agreement to have mutual observers during elections in the countries of the Kingdom, enabling international organisations and members of the parliaments in the Kingdom to observe during elections.
In the agreements’ list that was signed on Friday, delegations stated that they took note of the habits of the countries within the Kingdom regarding election observers. “The delegations subscribe to the importance of having standard international observers’ missions at elections in their countries,” it was stated.
“Election observations have, as is customary, the objective to observe whether the elections in a country are taking place in a free and honest manner, and to report on this. In this way, they can contribute to the strengthening of free and honest elections in the four countries of the Kingdom,” it was stated in the agreements’ list.
The delegations at IPKO in principle were positive about having observers at elections within the Kingdom. However, they were unable to reach an agreement on how to give content to this election observation.
The suggestion of Chairman of the Curaçao Parliament William “Junior” Millerson to establish a committee which would draft an advice for handling at the next IPKO in The Hague June 9-12 was shot down by the Dutch delegation.
Deputy delegation leader Senator Paul Rosenmöller (GroenLinks) made clear that enough time and effort had been dedicated to the subject of election observation and that it was time to arrive at a concrete agreement.
