Curacao Votes To Leave Netherland Antilles

by Amanda Banks, for LawAndTax-News.com, London

14 April 2005

According to reports in the regional media, a non-binding referendum held in Curacao on Friday has revealed that the majority of the population want the island to break away from the Netherland Antilles federation and become an autonomous country within the Netherlands.

68% of those who voted (or around 42,000 people) called for autonomy within the Netherlands, whilst around 14,500 voted to be directly governed by the Dutch authorities.

In a similar vote held on the smaller island of St Eustatius, 76% of those who voted wanted to remain in the Netherland Antilles, whilst 20% voted for closer ties to the Netherlands.

In previous referenda held in Saba, Bonaire and St Maarten, the majority voted for direct administration by the Dutch government (in the first two instances) and autonomy (in the latter).

The ANP news agency reported following the votes that Dutch Minister of Kingdom Relations, Alexander Pechtold had welcomed the clear outcome of the referenda, suggesting that the results are "a good basis for further talks" about the relations within the kingdom of the Netherlands.

This follows the publication of a report last year which recommended that the federation should be disbanded, with Curacao and St Maarten becoming autonomous and the other three territories being directly administered by the Dutch government.

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