1945 Curaçao general election

General elections were held in the Territory of Curaçao on 5 November 1945. Ten of the fifteen seats in the Estates of Curaçao were elected, with the remaining five appointed by governor P.A. Kasteel. The ten elected seats consisted of five for Curaçao, three for Aruba, one for Bonaire and one for the SSS Islands

From a population of 127,866 (December 1944) only 6,093 men, about 5% of the population, were entitled to vote in the elections. They was the last parliamentary elections in Curaçao before the introduction of universal suffrage.

Results

Party		Island	Votes	%	Seats
	Democratic Party	Curaçao	2,122	39.72	3
	Catholic Party	Curaçao	1,208	22.61	2
	Eman List	Aruba	1,167	21.85	2
	Catholic Union	Aruba	519	9.72	1
	Curaçaoan Protestant Party	Curaçao	190	3.56	0
	Gerharts List	Bonaire	44	0.82	1
	Protestant List	Aruba	42	0.79	0
	Catholic Party	Bonaire	38	0.71	0
	Marchena List	Bonaire	12	0.22	0
	Plantz List	SSS islands			1
Appointed members					5
Total			5,342	100.00	15
Registered voters/turnout			6,103	–

Curaçao

Population: 78,587 (31 December 1944)
Entitled to vote: 4,095
Valid votes: 3,520
Invalid votes: 45
Seats: 5
Average valid votes per seat: 704

#	Candidate	Total per list	Votes	Result
Democratic Party (DP)
1	E. Jonckheer	2,122	1,262	Elected
2	W.W. de Regt		66	Elected
3	P.H. Maal		41	-
4	C.H.W. Hueck		4	-
5	S.W. van der Meer		337	-
6	R.J. Wix		356	Elected
7	C.D. Kroon		2	-
8	J. Capriles		47	-
9	G.E. Rosario		7	-
Catholic Party
1	M.F. da Costa Gomez	1,208	1,063	Elected
2	J.H. Sprockel		28	Elected
3	E.A. Römer		4	-
4	C.B. Debrot		5	-
5	D.L. Capriles		3	-
6	J.H.E. Lamp		1	-
7	I.A.A. Kramers		10	-
8	R.H.C. van Haaren		94	-
Curaçaoan Protestant Party
1	H. Tiesma	190	107	-
2	F. Visser		15	-
3	W.J. Goslinga		39	-
4	F. Vreugdenhil		2	-
5	D. Colijn		21	-
6	H.J. Rijsdijk		6	-

Wix received enough preferential votes to get elected. With 2,122 votes 3 seats were obtained by the DP; 707 votes per seat. Wix had just more than 50% of 707 votes.

W.W. de Regt was succeeded by P.H. Maal.

Aruba

Population: 39,318 (31 December 1944)
Entitled to vote: 1,906
Valid votes: 1,728
Seats: 3
Average valid votes per seat: 576

#	Candidate	Total per list	Votes	Result
Protestant List
1	H. Tiesma	42	12	-
2	F. Visser		1	-
3	W.J. Goslinga		3	-
4	F. Vreugdenhil		0	-
5	D. Colijn		0	-
6	H.J. Rijsdijk		0	-
7	J. Pauw		19	-
8	J.H. Finck		7	-
Eman List
1	J.H.A. Eman	1,167	1,141	Elected
2	F.J.Q. Kwartsz		8	Elected
3	J.E. Irausquin		18	-
Catholic Union
1	J.R. Arends	519	478	Elected
2	L.A.C. Laclé		15	-
3	C.L. Juliao		2	-
4	E.A. de Cuba		8	-
5	C. Maduro		10	-
6	C.W. Wever		6	-

Bonaire

Population: 5,798 (31 December 1944)
Entitled to vote: 102
Valid votes: 94
Seats: 1

Candidate	Total per list	Votes	Result
Marchena List
R.Th.M. Marchena	12	12	-
Gerharts List
L.D. Gerharts	44	44	Elected
Catholic Party
A. Booi	38	38	-
C.B. Debrot		0	-

SSS Islands

Entitled to vote: 148 (Sint Maarten: 60, Sint Eustatius: 45, Saba: 43)
Seats: 1

W.R. Plantz was the only candidate so the seat for the SSS Islands went automatically to him.

Appointed by the governor

Gerharts was not on time to hand over his letter of credence and therefore he lost his seat. The governor decided to use one of the five seats he could appoint for Gerharts, so he still became a member of the Estates of Curaçao. The other four people who were appointed by the governor were A.W.J.M. Desertine, V.E. Henriquez, C.W.J. Jonckheer and E. Cohen Henriquez.

Aftermath

The governor decided that Desertine was the speaker of the parliament and Plantz the deputy speaker.

The new session of the Estates started on the first Tuesday of April 1946. Because of the issue with the letter of credence of Gerharts the number of members of the Estates of Curaçao was not 15 but 14.

References

• Amigoe di Curaçao 2 August 1945
• Amigoe di Curaçao, 5 November 1945
• Amigoe di Curaçao, 6 November 1945