Rollocks helps Moses’ party MP to win a seat in parliament

GREAT BAY – Former Island Council member Julian Rollocks was retained by Marilyn Moses in June as a political consultant and strategist for her political party Movementu Progressivo. Last week, the MP won one seat in the new parliament in Willemstad.

Rollocks hosted a tourism economic summit to position the party; experts from the United States including Jerry Butler from the Inter-American Development Bank spoke at the summit about the tourism industry. This presentation was “quite well accepted” by all the stakeholders and created interest in the community.

Political parties must be endorsed by at least 1 percent of the valid votes during the previous election – 870 this time – to take part in the elections.

Anthony Godett, who has been in politics for at least 20 years did not get the required number of signatures and his FOL-party could not participate in the elections.

“The elections in Curacao were very tough,” says Rollocks. “With an electorate of 120,000 eligible voters spread out over the entire island it is not easy. I learnt from Dr. Claude Wathey that with limited resources a door to door campaign is one of the best strategies. Candidates keep a low profile and avoid ‘detection’ by the larger parties.”

Moses’ party targeted the poor areas on the island and did small events at some people’s homes. Rollocks was surprised at the level of poverty he encountered on the island. He described it as “deplorable and heart wrenching” that some of the homes he visited did not have electricity or running water for as long as three months. In one case, a family of four could not even afford to have cool water in their refrigerator.

The Movementu Progressivo created an advertisement that blamed the government for the growing poverty. “That was very effective.”

Movemento Progressivo won more than 4,000 votes – enough for one seat. “Retaining a seat in the parliament of Curacao is a feat especially because PAIS and the Democratic Party who had been successful in previous elections were unable to retain a seat,” Rollocks says.

Thirteen political parties contested the elections, but only seven were able to win seats. Rollocks attributes the success of MP to “the hard work done by leader Marilyn Moses and to setting up the candidates for the election.”

Moses negotiated with other parties about the formation of the next government but in vain.

Four other parties – MAN, PAR, PNP, and PS – have agreed to work together to form the next government leaving MFK, MP and Un Kòrsou Hustu van Oamyra Leeflang in the opposition.

Photo caption: Julian Rollocks (left) with the candidates of Movementu Progressivo. Photo contributed