‘Broadening of suffrage does not lead to removal of democratic deficit’

WILLEMSTAD — Stipulations should be included in the States regulations for the existing and new countries of the Kingdom, explicitly stating that the government will only agree with a statute law, Order in National Council or another national regulation, after the States’ approval. Former Minister of Justice Rutsel Martha stated the aforementioned in a reaction to the advice of the Committee Democratic Deficit.

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In their final report ‘Choosing for the Kingdom’, the committee suggests to tackle the democratic deficit in the Kingdom by giving citizens of the Antilles and Aruba suffrage for the Netherlands States General. However, Martha who is currently head of the legal department of the International Fund for Agricultural Development of the United Nations in Rome does not agree with this conclusion. He deems that the issue of democratic deficit in the Kingdom to be artificial. "In as far as there is a question of a democratic deficit, then such could only be resolved into defects in the states regulations of Aruba and of the Netherlands Antilles. A stipulation should be included in the states regulation of Aruba and the future states regulations of Curaçao and St. Maarten if one wishes to prevent this issue in the future,
Each country of the Kingdom should be involved with the drawing up of national rules, according to Martha. There will be a deficit in the sense that the government, without support from the representative body of the people or without sufficiently involving them with this decision, could bind the Land on a Kingdom level, if each country of the Kingdom is not involved with the drawing up of national rules, according to Martha.
"The inclusion of aforementioned stipulation in relevant States regulations will effectively rectify this problem once and for all. The inclusion of such in the own States regulation will also arrange that one does not have to depend on other countries in the Kingdom for the solution of the problem." According to Martha, this solution is preferred above the proposal of the Committee Democratic Deficit. "After all, the comparatively few voters in the Netherlands Antilles will never be sufficient to influence the balance of power in the Lower Chamber in any form. On the other hand, the proposal to regulate the matter in the States regulations guarantees that the local government can never be put under pressure to agree with national regulations such as the famous consensus statute laws, without the approval of the Curaçao people or that of the Aruban and St. Maarten peoples."