Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
It appears a new government is indeed on the horizon, now that three parties with a combined eight of the 15 seats in Parliament have reached agreement on the division of ministerial portfolios and other positions (see related story). The candidates for such are yet to be announced, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what some of the names involved might be.
NA is likely to nominate its political leader William Marlin as the new Prime Minister, while the party's number two candidate and top vote-getter Silveria Jacobs, having already served as Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports, is favoured to take up that post again. Who may become NA's Minister of Housing, Spatial Development, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI remains to be seen, as is the case for the Plenipotentiary Minister in The Hague.
For DP, number two candidate and second vote-getter Cornelius de Weever probably will continue as Minister of Public Health, Labour and Social Affairs, but it's not clear whether party leader and current Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams intends to become Justice Minister (and Deputy Prime Minister), or whom the DP then would make President of Parliament, considering the individual vote-count.
US leader Frans Richardson is an obvious candidate to become Minister of Tourism and Economic Affairs, while Head of the Civil Registry and the party's second vote-getter Leona Marlin-Romeo possibly could be a candidate for Finance Minister, but also for Vice-President of Parliament.
One thing to keep in mind is that politicians elected into Parliament who become cabinet members instead run the risk of being left "outside looking in" if their party somehow is sent to the opposition benches, because all the fraction's seats will be occupied already. This happened to both UP leader Theo Heyliger and NA leader William Marlin during the past four years.
The new coalition strives for an open and stable government, but with a minimal majority in the legislature the latter is by no means a foregone conclusion. On the other hand, as no less than four of the 15 parliamentarians went independent during the past governing term, even a bigger margin wouldn't offer any guarantees.
Time will tell.
