WILLEMSTAD, Curacao, Apr 29 2017 – The Partido Alternativa Real (PAR) led by its new political leader Eugene Rhuggenaath was Saturday declared the biggest winner following the preliminary count of the general elections held here on Friday.
The PAR received 18,362 of a total of 78,815 votes cast in the election that was observed by a four-member team from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
It is the first time that Rhuggenaath participated in an election as leader of the party. The PAR was one of 11 parties that contested the poll, two less than the October 5, 2016 poll when three parties won four of the 21 seats in Parliament.
The PARTIDO (MAN) party of former prime minister Hensley Koeiman came in second with 16,071 votes. The party placing third, is the current coalition partner MFK of Gerrit Schotte with 15,710 votes.
Other parties that have received enough votes for a seat in Parliament are Korsou di Nos Tur (KdNT) of the businessman Amparo dos Santos with 7,438 votes, Pueblo Soberano with 4,029 votes, PIN of former Minister of Traffic, Transportation and Spatial Planning Suzanne Camelia-Römer with 4185 votes and Movementu Progresivo (MP) of Dr. Marilyn Moses with 3885 votes.
For the first time one of the country’s oldest party the Partido Nashonal di Pueblo ( PNP) led by Humphrey Davelaar did not receive enough votes for a seat in Parliament. This will be the first time the party is not represented in Parliament since it was established about 70 years ago.
The preliminary results indicate that PAR will have 6 seats in the Parliament, with MAN and MFK five seats each, KdNT two seats, and PIN, PS and MP one seat each.
Friday’s elections followed the collapse of the Koeiman government on October 5, 2016 after seven weeks. The cabinet fell on February 12, 2017.
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