September 22, 2017 was Election Day in Aruba, held every four years to elect the Prime Minister and members of Parliament. It was a little hard to follow with the language barrier, but I did my best to pick up what I could and will report what I learned.
AVP, the Green Party, has been in power for a long time here in Aruba. MEP, the Yellow Party, is the other big one who were fighting to take over leadership. Then we had the other guys, POR, the Blue Party, also a RED Party, and some others who just didn’t end up getting many votes at all.
Gearing up for the election, when I say the people in Aruba were into it, that is a MAJOR understatement! Flags were flying, cars were decorated, houses were painted, stickers, flyers and all kinds of other things were distributed. Everywhere you looked, there were indications of what party each person supported. Here are a few pieces of evidence:
There was always some kind of a parade, party, or gathering going on. There were also a few formal debates (which were interesting but I couldn’t understand since they were in Papiamento).
So here’s what I knew as an American looking in and just observing:
- AVP, the Green Party, had a HUGE following but also a lot of people do NOT appreciate their spending habits
- MEP, the Yellow Party, is more the equivalent of Republicans in the U.S., more conservative, and offering change
- POR, the Blue Party, not too sure what they stand for, but they were definitely out there making their voice heard
- RED has Ricardo Croes as their leader, he’s a Rasta dude with dreadlocks, wants to legalize marijuana, seems to be very genuine. I saw evidence of his campaign as he led a group up Hooiberg to pick up trash. I like him.
When Election Day finally arrived, the people of Aruba take this very seriously. More than 80% of registered voters actually went to the polls. **One important note: From 6 pm on Thursday until 6 am on Saturday, NO alcohol was served or sold in Aruba (only hotels were able to serve tourists). This was a BIG deal as we do love our drinks!
So here are the results (copied from Facebook post):
Out of 21 seats:
Ruling party AVP 9 seats.
Former ruling party MEP 9 seats.
New party POR 2 seats.
Existing party RED 1 seat.
Leader of the AVP and former Prime Minister for two terms, Mike Eman retires from his post as leader and announces that AVP has chosen to position the organization as an opposition party and will be representing 9 seats in Parliament. He also announced he will not be joining his colleagues in Parliament and is making way for rejuvenation of the party.
It looks like Aruba will have its first female prime minister ever, leader of MEP Evelyn Wever-Croes.
The three parties – MEP, POR and RED will sit down to form the new government in the coming days. Since Status Aparte and the establishment of a Prime Minister as leader of government and a Governor as representative of the crown, both posts have never before been held by a woman.
What is it like the day AFTER the election? Very quiet. Nobody is whining that they didn’t get enough votes, there needs to be recounts, nobody is rioting, just accepting it is what it is and going on. Another reason to love Aruba.
What does all of this mean? I’m not 100 percent sure as it’s still kind of confusing to this girl who doesn’t know a lot of Papiamento or understand much about politics in general. What it seems like is that the “big guy”, Mike Eman, has stepped down, but this may not be so cut and dry as it seems. What I do know is that there are probably going to be some major changes in the upcoming weeks and we shall see how it affects the island and its people. I’m voting for even more positive things to come!
Z Island Life 