Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
The Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultation IPOK takes place this week in Aruba, starting with today's preparatory tripartite session between the Parliament Presidents of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten. While the first six agenda points for this IPOK are from the last meeting in June, five more have been added that very much relate to current events.
It is obviously with this in mind that Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Justice Minister Dennis Richardson met with St. Maarten's legislative committee in question. After all, the constitutional disagreement between Philipsburg and The Hague over recent instructions via the governor regarding an integrity investigation and the screening of candidate ministers is still on the table.
Nobody should expect any miracles in that sense over the next few days, but topics such as a dispute and resolution arrangement, the screening process, the use of articles 15 and 21 of the Governor's Regulation and the handling of Kingdom Laws will allow for ample discussions on the matter. Moreover, both Aruba, which just experienced an instruction via its own governor, and Curaçao back St. Maarten in its stance.
That does not mean members of the Dutch First and Second Chambers probably will change their position in favour of the contested decisions by the Kingdom Council of Ministers. At the same time, they have recognised the existence of a "democratic deficit" within the kingdom in the past.
Not only is the so-called Kingdom Government basically the entire Dutch cabinet plus just one plenipotentiary minister each for the three overseas countries, but it answers exclusively to the Parliament of the Netherlands in which the islands' elected representatives have no say.
It's been said before, but giving the Council of State a greater role in judging points of conflict between the Kingdom partners might be the most realistic and feasible option to bring a bit of balance in the relationship between the ex-coloniser and its former Caribbean colonies. Doing so no doubt will meet with approval from the international community and United Nations (UN) as well.
