THE HAGUE--The reported irregularities before and during the March 20 election in Bonaire have not escaped the attention of the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament.
Second Chamber member Chris van Dam of the Christian Democratic Party CDA submitted written questions on Wednesday to State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops in which he sought clarity following media reports about the “disordered” elections.
Van Dam asked Knops whether he agreed that the elections for a new Island Council and Electoral College in Bonaire had taken place in a disordered way, and whether it was true that people had to wait in line for several hours at the polling stations before they could vote.
He also asked: “What problems were there with the identification of voters? Is it correct that during the counting of the votes in the night of Wednesday to Thursday, 47 voting ballots got lost? If so, what was the reason?”
Van Dam asked whether Knops planned to seek a “detailed explanation” of the things that went wrong on Election Day in Bonaire and what his proposed measures are to achieve structural improvements.
Second Chamber member André Bosman of the liberal democratic VVD party commented on Wednesday on reports he had received from Bonaire about the practices surrounding the proxies, which the voter can use to give someone else the right to vote on his or her behalf.
“I have received signals that there were concerns in Bonaire about the haggling with proxies which have been brought to Island Governor Edison Rijna’s attention,” said Bosman, who made clear that he wants to have the possibilities of using proxies in the Caribbean Netherlands curbed or terminated altogether.
Bosman announced that he would be submitting written questions to Knops about the use of proxies and the concerns that have been expressed.
The Bonaire Island Council has already indicated that the system of proxies should be eliminated. The Prosecutor’s Office in Bonaire is conducting an investigation into a number of complaints about the recruiting of proxies.
