Politics of Aruba - Political Conditions

Political Conditions

After a break in the coalition between the ruling Aruban People's Party (Arubaanse Volkspartij, AVP) and the Aruban Liberal Organization (Organisashon Liberal Arubano, OLA), the election of July 1998 was pushed forward to December 1997. Unfortunately, the results were unclear, with no clear mandate for a particular coalition. The MEP announced that they preferred a coalition between the large parties, the MEP and the AVP. The message was not clear enough from the MEP side and the negotiations went sluggish. After more than 6 months of talks, the AVP started negotiations with its previous coalition partner and succeeded to form a weak but stable enough coalition. The MEP remained in the opposition, a place strategically favored by the party leader Nelson (Nel) O. Oduber.

Four years later, in September 2001, the strategy paid off and the MEP won a decisive victory from the opposition. The MEP took 12 of 21 seats to form Aruba's first non-coalition government. The AVP on the other hand lost heavily and retained only 6 seats. The other coalition partner of the AVP OLA, retained only 1 seat. The PPA, which endured two seatless elections, got 2 seats.

After the 2001 election, the AVP leader, Dr. Robertico (Tico) Croes stepped down as party leader and left politics as the result of the election results. He went on to pursue a career in teaching in the United States of America (University of Central Florida).

The AVP underwent a long and arduous restructuring process which included a new party leader, Michiel (Mike) G. Eman, grandson of one of the party founders and consultant of former Prime Minister Henny Eman. In the 2005 elections, the AVP gained seats and remained the largest opposition party.

The MEP, on the other hand lost votes, but managed to only lose a single seat, thus remaining in office after the 2005 elections and still as a non-coalition government.

In these elections, however, the PPA and OLA parties lost their seats and other lesser known parties, failed to get enough votes for a seat in the Parliament. The DR party did not win a seat by a very narrow margin. The winning parties (i.e. which gained seats) in the 2005 elections were the MEP, AVP, RED, and the MPA (which originated from the PPA party).

After the 2005 elections the PPA all but disappeared from the political scene and the OLA stopped existing after the former leader went bankrupt and lost support from the public after dubious project like the Racetrack, Airport (project that at the end cost twice the original budget) and the intent of selling the local telephone company to a foreign investor, which drew tens of thousands of protesters.

Since 2005 elections, the MEP has been accused by the opposition party and media with allegations of corruption and scandals. One such allegation resulted in the removal of selected authorities (related to naturalization and immigration) from the Minister of Justice (Hiacinto (Rudy) Croes) by means of a protocol signed by three Dutch Ministers and the government of Aruba, which at the end resulted in not being true.

Another scandal, which has not resulted in a conviction is related to the Minister of Labour. The Minister, T. F. (Ramon) Lee, was publicly accused by a female public servant of sexual harassment, however the female public servant went on the air, claiming of a relationship between her and the minister which the Minister also accepted and no charges were ever pressed.

The latest scandal is the result of a bribery letter, the now infamous "Namdar Letter", exposed by an OLA aide, Michael Williams. This case is currently under investigation by the Prosecutor's Office after it was revealed that Michael Williams was the person who requested the "Namdar Letter" in name of the government and former Minister Glembert Croes (OLA). The media in the first instance published the letter accusing the Government of corruption but did not disclosed the date and the names of the people involved which later resulted not being connected to the government.