The First Chamber, the Senate, allowed a change of the Dutch electoral law on Tuesday to make this possible. The Second Chamber had already given the go-ahead. However, the First Chamber would have preferred to see that the voting right for Antilleans and Arubans in the future be regulated through a Kingdom Consensus law into which the governments of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba had an input.
The Senate has objections to the authority of the Netherlands in the Dutch electoral law to decide on the right to vote of people on the islands. The governing Christian Democratic Party CDA tied its consent to the change of the electoral law to a motion ordering State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten to present a Kingdom consensus law after next year’s elections, in cooperation with the governments of the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.
The Senate votes on this motion next week Tuesday. The motion is expected to receive general support.
All factions in the First Chamber were happy to note that the discriminatory regulation would be eliminated. Until now, Antilleans and Arubans living in their country of birth have not been allowed to vote in the European Parliament elections, while fellow countrymen who moved to another country in the world can do so.
Currently, Antillean and Aruban citizens who have lived in the Netherlands for at least 10 years may vote in the European elections. Strangely, an Antillean or Aruban who has moved to, for example, China or Colombia can vote, just like Dutch citizens living abroad.
Aruban Member of Parliament Mike Eman pointed out this unequal treatment and even went to the European Supreme Court, which shared Eman’s point of view. Citizens living outside the Netherlands have until December to register so they can vote in the 2009 European elections.
