Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG:--- Vice President of Parliament Leona Marlin Romeo finds herself in a very compromising position now that the President of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams have resigned from the position of the chair. MP Marlin Romeo and two other members of Parliament submitted a request to the Parliament of St. Maarten on November 6th calling for a meeting to be held to discuss the incidents that occurred on Election Day August 29th, 2014. The agenda for that meeting was to discuss the main voting bureau and the Civil Registry where the Members of Parliament claimed that there were incidents that occurred during and in preparation for the August 29th election. As it stands now MP Leona Marlin Romeo is the vice chair of the Parliament of St. Maarten, she was the former head of the civil registry and she is one of the MPs that requested this meeting.In the request that was submitted the three MPS elaborated on the discrepancies and they also mentioned several topics related to the electoral ordinance as well as campaign guidelines. The MPS then submitted another request asking that instead of a meeting of Parliament that a central committee meeting be held which was scheduled for November 18th but has now been postponed to November 24th.The request for such a meeting was not only peculiar but also questionable since one of the Members of Parliament that requested the meeting was the former head of the Civil Registry where the incidents the three MPs said occurred.Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams penned a letter to the Parliament of St. Maarten questioning the MPS where the incidents they claimed took place are recorded? She further asked if the voters of St. Maarten objected to the electoral procedures. MP Wescot Williams wants to know if the voters also objected to the ballot count.Wescot Williams said that in the letter submitted to Parliament the three MPS cited real discrepancies that occurred on Election Day and there were all sorts of innuendos which is disturbing to say the least.Wescot Williams said if the objective of the meeting is to reevaluate the Electoral Ordinance, then the MPS that requested the meeting should state just that and the Parliament of St. Maarten will initiate such post haste.Wescot Williams said that the Main Voting Bureau is an independent body (article 12, Electoral Ordinance).Furthermore, the Parliament has or in any case, should have received the procés verbals of most proceedings of the election results (article 103, Electoral Ordinance).She asked if any of the discrepancies mentioned in those proces verbals . Wecot Williams therefore asked for more clarification by any or all of the Members of Parliament especially those that requested the meeting in order for them to have real and meaningful discussion on the topics of Elections and Electoral Reform.
