Just one person with Surinamese or Antillean origins is likely to be elected to the 150-seat parliament in the September general election, while the number of people with business experience is likely to be halved.

According to the Parool, Tanja Jadnanansing, number four on the Labour party’s list of candidates, is the only person from the former Dutch colonies who will end up in the lower house.
Dave Ensberg, who is 27th on the Christian Democrat list has launched a campaign to get elected on preference votes. ‘You’ll find me at Kwakoe (the annual Suriname festival in Amsterdam) every weekend, he told the paper. The CDA, which used to win 30 plus seats, is on target to take around 15 this year.
Democracy
Political scientist Jean Tillie told the paper the lack of candidates from the former colonies is ‘a democratic shortcoming’. One reason is possibly the fear that parties may be seen as being politically correct if they include too many minority candidates on their lists, Tillie said.
In the last parliament, there were four MPs with a background from Suriname or the Antilles.
Cynthia Ortega, from the Christian party CU, is leaving parliament this session but told the Parool: ‘The people’s representatives should reflect the make up of society’.
The paper says the number of MPs with a Turkish or Moroccan background is likely to be unchanged at around four.
Industry
Meanwhile, the Financieele Dagblad reports the number of people with business experience in the new parliament is likely to be halved, at around six.
The highest placed is Teun van Dijck, a candidate for the anti-immigration PVV, who ran a catering company and employment agency on the Caribbean island of Curacao.
The right-wing Liberal VVD has three highly-placed candidates who have run businesses, while the CDA and Labour both have one.
Knowledge
Hans Biesheuvel, chairman of the small business association MKB-Nederland, told the paper there should be more entrepreneurs. ‘MPs have very limited knowledge of what it means to run a business,’ he told the FD.
The paper says entrepreneurs may be reluctant to get involved in national politics because they don’t want to leave their companies and are not attracted by the ‘meeting culture’ in The Hague.