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 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 6thIsaac H. Capriles CPU 189 170 55 45 18 12 ElectedMoises Frumencio da Costa Gomez CRKP 330 24 24 17 12 329 ElectedAdolphe Willem Jan Marie Desertine CRKP 40 621 28 22 7 6 ElectedC.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 ElectedErnesto Cecilio Martijn CRKP 315 8 9 16 31 296 ElectedElias Aloisius Römer CRKP 1 9 24 593 24 13 -Jan Rustige CPU 144 182 32 31 37 16 ElectedJohn 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 Population: 21,638 (31 December 1936) Entitled to vote: 553 Valid votes: 381
Candidate Preferred votes Result 1st 2ndJacob Rudolf Arends 197 19 ElectedJ.H. Beaujon 119 27 -A.T.D.H. de Boer 14 16 -Jean M. de Cuba 17 169 ElectedJan Hendrik Albert Eman 34 52 -
Bonaire Population: 5,827 (31 December 1936) Entitled to vote: 31
John Aniceto de Jongh (only candidate and therefore automatically elected)
SSS Islands Entitled to vote: 140 Valid votes: 107
Candidate Votes ResultA.R.W.S. Brouwer 34 -William Rufus Plantz 73 Elected
Appointed by the governor Frederik Philip Bichon van IJsselmonde Salomon Alfred Senior José Maria Pedro Kroon John Horris Sprockel Carel Nicolaas Winkel
In 1940 Bichon van IJsselmonde was succeeded by Frederik Augustus Vromans.
Aftermath 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 Amigoe di Curaçao, 22 December 1937 Amigoe di Curaçao, 5 January 1938 Amigoe di Curaçao, 18 November 1941