1937 Curaçao general election

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

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

Lists of candidates:

  • Curaçaoan Roman Catholic Party (CRKP)
  • Curaçaoan Political Union (CPU)
  • CSM pilots
Candidate List Preferred votes Result
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
Isaac H. Capriles CPU 189 170 55 45 18 12 Elected
Moises Frumencio da Costa Gomez CRKP 330 24 24 17 12 329 Elected
Adolphe Willem Jan Marie Desertine CRKP 40 621 28 22 7 6 Elected
C.W.J. Jonckheer CPU 123 90 212 29 27 13 -
José Maria Pedro Kroon CRKP 3 1 11 18 589 12 -
Willem Pieter Maal CPU 193 53 131 37 28 8 Elected
Ernesto Cecilio Martijn CRKP 315 8 9 16 31 296 Elected
Elias Aloisius Römer CRKP 1 9 24 593 24 13 -
Jan Rustige CPU 144 182 32 31 37 16 Elected
John Horris Sprockel CRKP 4 17 575 2 16 13 -
H.G. Suares CPU 12 229 64 44 35 23 -
J. Tinge CSM pilots 195 29 60 36 14 35 -

Aruba

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

Candidate Preferred votes Result
1st 2nd
Jacob Rudolf Arends 197 19 Elected
J.H. Beaujon 119 27 -
A.T.D.H. de Boer 14 16 -
Jean M. de Cuba 17 169 Elected
Jan Hendrik Albert Eman 34 52 -

Bonaire

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

SSS Islands

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Entitled to vote: 140
Valid votes: 107

Candidate Votes Result
A.R.W.S. Brouwer 34 -
William Rufus Plantz 73 Elected

Appointed by the governor

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

Aftermath

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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

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