General elections were held in

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

on 21 March 2025 to elect the 21 members of the

Parliament of Curaçao The Parliament of Curaçao () on the island of Curaçao, in the Dutch Caribbean region, consists of 21 members, each elected for a four-year term in a general election. The first Parliament was installed on 10 October 2010, following the dissol ...

. The governing party

Movement for the Future of Curaçao The Movement for the Future of Curaçao (, , MFK) is a political party in Curaçao, founded by Gerrit Schotte in 2010, which has 13 of the 21 seats in the Parliament of Curaçao after the 2025 Curaçao election. The party entered the island cou ...

(MFK) came in the lead and won an absolute majority with 13 seats, a first in the island's history.

Background

The 2021 general elections led to a change in government. The outgoing coalition suffered a major defeat, with the Real Alternative Party (PAR) and the New Antilles Movement (MAN) losing many of their seats, while the National Innovation Party (PIN) lost all representation in parliament. From the opposition, the pro-independence party

(MFK) was the first place finisher, winning almost half of the seats. MFK leader

Gilmar Pisas Gilmar Simon Pisas (born 28 October 1971) is a Curaçaoan politician and the prime minister of Curaçao, serving since 14 June 2021. He previously served as prime minister between 24 March 2017 and 29 May 2017, and as a member of the Parliam ...

was therefore appointed

Formateur A formateur (French for "someone who forms, who constitutes") is a politician who is appointed to lead the formation of a coalition government, after either a general election or the collapse of a previous government. The role of the formateur i ...

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Lucille George-Wout Lucille Andrea George-Wout (born 26 February 1950) is a Curaçaoan politician currently serving as the second governor of Curaçao since 4 November 2013. Political career George-Wout was a member of parliament for the Partido MAN in the Island ...

. On 26 March 2021, he signed an agreement for a coalition government between the MFK and the National People's Party (PNP). The new Pisas government was sworn in on 14 June.

Electoral system

Curaçao is a constituent country of the

Kingdom of the Netherlands The Kingdom of the Netherlands (, ;, , ), commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The re ...

. Its governance takes place in a framework of a

parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

representative democracy Representative democracy, also known as indirect democracy or electoral democracy, is a type of democracy where elected delegates represent a group of people, in contrast to direct democracy. Nearly all modern Western-style democracies func ...

. The

King of the Netherlands The monarchy of the Netherlands is governed by the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, country's charter and Constitution of the Netherlands, constitution, roughly a third of which explains the mechanics of succession, accession, and a ...

is the

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

, represented locally by a

governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

, with the

Prime Minister of Curaçao The Prime Minister of Curaçao is the head of government of Curaçao. The post was created after the Netherlands Antilles had been dissolved on 10 October 2010 and Curaçao became a country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Prime Minister ...

serving as

head of government In the Executive (government), executive branch, the head of government is the highest or the second-highest official of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presid ...

. The

unicameral Unicameralism (from ''uni''- "one" + Latin ''camera'' "chamber") is a type of legislature consisting of one house or assembly that legislates and votes as one. Unicameralism has become an increasingly common type of legislature, making up nearly ...

. It is composed of 21 representatives elected for four years according to

party-list proportional representation Party-list proportional representation (list-PR) is a system of proportional representation based on preregistered Political party, political parties, with each party being Apportionment (politics), allocated a certain number of seats Apportionm ...

in a single nationwide constituency. Parliament elects the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.

Primary election

In Curaçao, parties with no parliamentary representation must compete in a primary and must receive an equivalent of at least 1% of the total number of votes present in the prior election (in

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

) to participate in the general election. The primary was held on 1 and 2 February. The threshold to advance was 848 votes.

Results

The MFK, party of the incumbent Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas, won a landslide victory. With 55.2% of the votes, it would receive 13 of the 21 parliamentary seats. This election is the first where a single party wins an absolute majority in Curaçao's parliament. The PNP, coalition partner of the MFK, maintained its four seats. In opposition, the PAR had its parliamentary representation halved, retaining only two seats.

General election

Election monitoring Election monitoring involves the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or from a non-governmental organization (NGO). The monitoring parties aim primarily to assess the conduct of an elect ...

was assisted by the

Caribbean Community The Caribbean Community (abbreviated as CARICOM or CC) is an intergovernmental organisation that is a Political association, political and economic union of 15 member states (14 nation-states and one dependency) and five associated members thro ...

.https://caricom.org/arrival-statement-of-the-caribbean-community-caricom-elections-observation-team-to-the-general-elections-of-curacao/

References

{{Curaçao elections

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air force, air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colone ...

Curaçao general election Elections in Curaçao