1937 Curaçao general election explained

General elections were held in the Territory of Curaçao on 20 December 1937. Ten of the fifteen seats in the Estates of Curaçao were elected, with the remaining five appointed by the governor G.J.J. Wouters. The ten elected seats consisted of six for Curaçao, two for Aruba, one for Bonaire and one for the SSS Islands

From 1833 there was a Colonial Council ('Koloniale Raad') whose members were not elected. The council was replaced in April 1938 by the Estates of Curaçao. From a population of 90,870 (December 1936) only 2,754 men, about 3% of the population, were entitled to vote in the elections.

The new session of the Estates started on the first Tuesday of April 1938.

Curaçao

Population: 58,233 (31 December 1936)
Entitled to vote: 2,030
Valid votes: 1,549
Invalide votes: 116

Lists of candidates:

CandidateListPreferred votesResult
1st2nd3rd4th5th6th
data-sort-value="Ca"CPU 189 170 55 45 18 12 Elected
data-sort-value="Co"CRKP 330 24 24 17 12 329 Elected
data-sort-value="De"CRKP 40 621 28 22 7 6 Elected
data-sort-value="Jo"CPU 123 90 212 29 27 13 -
data-sort-value="Kr"CRKP 3 1 11 18 589 12 -
data-sort-value="M"CPU 193 53 131 37 28 8 Elected
data-sort-value="Ma"CRKP 315 8 9 16 31 296 Elected
data-sort-value="Ro"CRKP 1 9 24 593 24 13 -
data-sort-value="Ru"CPU 144 182 32 31 37 16 Elected
data-sort-value="Sp"CRKP 4 17 575 2 16 13 -
data-sort-value="Su"H.G. Suares CPU 12 229 64 44 35 23 -
data-sort-value="Ti"J. Tinge CSM pilots 195 29 60 36 14 35 -

Aruba

Population: 21,638 (31 December 1936)
Entitled to vote: 553
Valid votes: 381

CandidatePreferred votesResult
1st2nd
data-sort-value="Ar"197 19 Elected
data-sort-value="Be"J.H. Beaujon 119 27 -
data-sort-value="Bo"A.T.D.H. de Boer 14 16 -
data-sort-value="Cu"17 169 Elected
data-sort-value="Em"34 52 -

Bonaire

Population: 5,827 (31 December 1936)
Entitled to vote: 31

SSS Islands

Entitled to vote: 140
Valid votes: 107

CandidateVotesResult
data-sort-value="B"A.R.W.S. Brouwer 34 -
data-sort-value="P"73 Elected

Appointed by the governor

In 1940 Bichon van IJsselmonde was succeeded by Frederik Augustus Vromans.

Aftermath

Although a vast majority of the population was catholic, in the last Colonial Council only 4 of the 13 members were catholic. In the new Estates 8 out of the 15 members were catholic.

Sprockel did not receive enough votes to be elected but was soon after the elections appointed by the governor to be a member of the Estates. Originally Jossy Cohen Henriquez, speaker of the Colonial Council, was one of the members of Estates who were appointed by the governor. After S.M.L. Maduro died Cohen Henriquez succeeded him as member of the 'Raad van Bestuur' so he could no longer become a member of the Estates. A few days before the Estates started in April 1938 the governor appointed Senior instead of Cohen Henriquez. Wouters also decided Sprockel was the speaker of the parliament and Winkel the deputy speaker.

References