WILLEMSTAD, Curacao (AP) — A party that calls for Curacao to be completely independent of the Netherlands has topped parliamentary voting on the Dutch Caribbean island, but it will still hold only five of 21 seats in Parliament.
Results released Saturday show the Sovereign People party narrowly topped the Movement for the Future of Curacao led by former Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte. It also will have five seats.
Other parties won the rest of the seats on the island of about 140,000 people. So any government will have to be a coalition. That could dampen Sovereign People's efforts to win full independence even if it can form a government.
The island was part of the Netherlands Antilles until October 2010, when it became a more autonomous "constituent country" of the Netherlands.
