THE HAGUE--St. Maarten has received praise from Secretary-Director Melle Bakker of the Netherlands Electoral Council for the manner in which it has secured the independent position of the country’s Electoral Council and Central Voting Bureau.
Bakker gave St. Maarten a compliment during his presentation at the Inter-Parliamentary Consultation of the Kingdom IPKO on Wednesday. He was invited to share his views with the Members of the Parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands on the voting rights, elections and the electoral systems within the Kingdom.
Bakker lauded the legal structure to appoint St. Maarten Electoral Council and Central Voting Bureau members by National Decree based on the advice of the president of the Joint Court of Justice and the chairpersons of the St. Maarten Advisory Council (“Raad van Advies”) and the country’s General Audit Chamber (“Algemene Rekenkamer”).
“It is a very good way to appoint your members of the Electoral Council. Maybe the Netherlands can also consider a similar manner of appointment,” said Bakker. In the Netherlands, the members of the Electoral Council (“Kiesraad”) are appointed by Royal Decree based on a proposal of the minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations.
The St. Maarten Electoral Council handles supervision of the financing of political parties, a task which the Dutch Electoral Council doesn’t have as this is designated to another organisation. St. Maarten Member of Parliament (MP) Wycliffe Smith mentioned that the Electoral Council also plays an important role in the registration of new political parties.
Bakker, a former Director at the Cabinet of the Aruba Governor, advocated less political involvement in the appointments at the Electoral Council and the functioning of said institute. The independent position of the Electoral Council is a very important aspect in having an objective, solid, free and fair electoral system. To further secure that position, Bakker said that ideally the Electoral Council should be anchored in the Dutch Constitution.
The independent position of the Electoral Councils in the countries of the Kingdom, also where it pertains to the financing of this institute, should be secured in national legislation, as it is in St. Maarten.
Bakker also spoke about the process of holding elections in the different parts of the Kingdom. He was critical of the changes that were made to the logistical aspects of the elections in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba since the islands became public entities in October 2010.
The secretary-director lamented the fact that the Dutch government has reinstated voting by proxy, a system that was abandoned in the past because it was susceptible to fraud. “On October 10, 2010, the islands had to accept the voting per proxy because of how it is arranged in the Netherlands,” he said, responding to a question from Member of the Dutch Parliament, Second Chamber, Joba van den Berg about the electoral system in the Caribbean Netherlands in light of the constitutional changes.
The director general was also not too positive about the Dutch decision to make the format of the voting ballots in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba similar to that in the Netherlands. This meant that logos of the political parties and colours were no longer allowed on the voting ballot. “Those colours and logos helped the people on the islands, but all of a sudden this was not allowed anymore. That surprised me.”
Bakker lamented the fact that this cultural aspect of local voting was done away with, while a few years later the Netherlands introduced logos on the ballot papers for Dutch voters living abroad.
Bakker was critical as well about the decision of the Dutch government to have the voting polls remain open until 9:00pm instead of until 7:00pm as was the case before on the islands. “By then it is already dark and no one comes out to vote.” Lastly, he mentioned the fact that before 2010, the elections always took place on Friday, something to which the people had grown accustomed.
The islands have already indicated on several occasions that they don’t agree with several of these decisions, especially the matter of the voting by proxy, but the Dutch government has not followed up on these requests.
Bakker also addressed the task of the Central Voting Bureau, which is a different body than the Electoral Council. In his opinion, the countries should have a permanent Electoral Council with tasks regarding elections and an advisory task.
Having a permanent Central Voting Bureau, like St. Maarten has offers more guarantees for a secure and fair election process. He suggested that in Aruba and Curaçao, there was too much political pressure on the Central Voting Bureau.
St. Maarten MP Sarah Wescot-Williams brought up the matter of expanding the electoral constituency by giving St. Maarteners living in the Netherlands voting rights for elections back home, a proposal that the St. Maarten government had presented a while ago.
The proposal stranded because there was no support for it in the Kingdom Council of Ministers. An amendment to the St. Maarten Constitution is needed to expand the electoral constituency which in turn requires the approval of the Kingdom Government.
The Dutch Electoral Council was asked to give advice on St. Maarten’s proposal. The advice was negative. One of the arguments was that this would only involve St. Maarteners in the Netherlands and not those living elsewhere in the world. Bakker said that Aruba had expressed similar wishes in the past.
Questioning the advice of the Electoral Council regarding the St. Maarten proposal, Curaçao MP Ana-Maria Pauletta asked if there were other reasons why the electoral constituency could not be expanded. Bakker said that this was not the case.
