Information process elections St. Eustatius to resume
Effective June 2020 the Executive Council of the Public Entity St. Eustatius will resume the awareness and education programme in the run up to the elections of the Island Council. This will take place in close collaboration with the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and the Dutch Institute for Multi-party Democracy (NIMD). Due COVID 19 this will be mainly a digital process that comprises different modules.
The kick-off of the programme took place on February 20th with speakers of the VNG, NIMD and the Electoral Council. There were more parts envisioned, such as a series of public relations sessions and walk-in meeting for persons interested in the local politics. Duet o the corona pandemic the programme has experienced delay.
In the third week of June the first module “Constitutional relations; sharing and applying the knowledge” will be organized. The objective of this module is to share basic information about among others the constitutional relations, the role and responsibilities of the Island Council, the Executive Council and the Island Governor and how these relate to the civil service. Information regarding a more specific date, time and format will follow.
There is also now the opportunity to schedule one-on-one sessions with representatives of the NIVM and the VNG. This will take place in module 2. For this you can contact Maaike van der Werf of the NIMD (maaikevanderwerf@nimd.org). The one –on one sessions are also digital.
In the third module personal experiences and ‘best practices’ of former politicians in the region will be shared.
Further in the programme there will be modules specifically intended for civil servants, schools, potential candidates and followed by the elected council members. More information will follow regarding the exact date, time and format of these different modules.
Persons, who presently have questions about the possibilities of local politics or who would like to make known their wishes and needs for module 1 or the remainder of the process, are invited to send an email to Andre de Jeu (a.dejeu@sportengemeenten.nl) and Maaike van der Werf (maaikevanderwerf@nimd.org). Within the Public Entity of St. Eustatius a projectteam has been formed with three main tasks; preparation, education & training and awareness.