Somson (PvdA) is the biggest vote getter in the Public Entities

THE HAGUE–Dutch Labour Party Leader Diederik  Samsom was the biggest vote getter in Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba in last week’s elections for a new Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament with 445 personal votes.

The Dutch Electoral Council (Kiesraad) this week published the official results of the Second Chamber elections of September 12. The Dutch public entities Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba participated for the first time as voting district 20. The voter turn-out was the lowest of all Dutch voting districts with merely 2,633 valid votes. Party Leader of the conservative VVD party Mark Rutte was the second-most popular Dutch politician on the three islands with 366 personal votes.

Surprisingly, the third-largest vote getter on the islands was not a party leader, but a candidate: Arjan Erkel. Number 23 on the slate of the Christian Democratic Party CDA, Erkel received 271 personal votes in voting district 20. Erkel was the
only candidate who personally went to the Dutch Caribbean to campaign. The vast majority of his votes came from Bonaire. Democratic Party D66 party leader Alexander Pechtold came in fourth with 266 preferential votes. The fifth-biggest vote getter in the elections on the public entities was Member of the Second Chamber Wassila Hachchi, number 12 on the D66 slate. She received 149 preferential votes, many of which were cast in St. Eustatius and Saba.

After Hachchi, there are: Socialist party (SP) party leader Emile Roemer with 108 personal votes, CDA leader Sybrand van Haersma-Buma with 94 votes, Party for Freedom PVV party leader Geert Wilders with 56 votes and Marianne Thieme, leader of the Party for Animals with 55 votes. GroenLinks party leader Jolande Sap and Arie Slob of the Christian Union (CU) received 49 votes each. The 50Plus Party did relatively well for a newcomer with 35 votes for its leader Henk Krol.

The number two candidates on the two biggest party lists Edith Schippers (VVD) and Jetta Klijnsma didn’t do badly on the islands with 41 and 44 votes, respectively. Members of the Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Kingdom
Relations, aside from Hachchi, reeled in few votes. Ronald van Raak (SP) secured 57 preferential votes, followed at a large distance by Martijn van Dam (PvdA) with 18 votes, Jeroen Recourt (PvdA) with 14 votes and André Bosman (VVD)
with only two votes.

Four members of the committee didn’t take part in the elections: Bas Jan van Bochove (CDA), Ineke van Gent (GroenLinks), Cynthia Ortega-Martijn (CU) and Eric Lucassen (PVV). CU candidate number nine Curacao-born Ixora Balootje secured 28 votes on the islands. Curacaoborn Alvin Riley, candidate 55 on the PvdA slate, received 15 personal votes. The Anti-Europe Party was the only party that put a local candidate from one of the islands on its slate: Sigfried Molina of Bonaire. He received 33 personal votes in his voting district 20.

Figures per candidate cast by voters in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten were not available. The three countries together resort under the voting district The Hague and no separate information per candidate was provided.

Source: The Daily Herald September 20, 2012