Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
The Kingdom Council of Ministers has given Governor Eugene Holiday an instruction not to install any new cabinet members until there are sufficient guarantees regarding their integrity. This is to be determined by applying a more stringent screening, for which the Dutch Government will appoint a team of experts to assist the governor.
The highly unusual and unprecedented move has to do with a 2010 vote-buying case involving the UP party and developments since this year's elections held at the end of August. No less than three members voted into the new Parliament on candidate lists of other parties – each on their own – have declared support meanwhile for a UP-led government.
The Hague finds that suspicious also in light of the two recent integrity reports and obviously does not want UP leader Theo Heyliger to become prime minister, even though no individual supposedly is being targeted. Politicians there are to some extent understandably concerned about the real motive behind caretaker DP minister Cornelius de Weever "jumping ship" to sink the intended NA/DP/US Party coalition and forge an alliance with UP instead.
The fact that DP leader Sarah Wescot-Williams and US Party parliamentarian Leona Marlin-Romeo followed suit shortly before the incoming legislators were sworn in did not help, especially after the new majority then named them respectively President and Vice-President of Parliament. This created the impression they were being "rewarded."
It is not quite clear at this point either whether the DP as a whole would be part of the proposed next government, considering that both its fraction members are now backing such. Then again, the rule that seats in the legislature belong to those occupying them rather than their parties was taken from the Dutch system, just like the practice of negotiating functions and positions in addition to policy during formation talks.
One also must remember that DP co-founder and long-time leader the late Claude Wathey was Heyliger's grandfather. When the latter left the party and established UP, Wescot-Williams thus more or less inherited a DP on which the Wathey family effectively had turned their backs.
Faced with De Weever's latest actions and the prospect of being a one-seat opposition fraction, the outgoing prime minister apparently believed it was better for both herself and the continued future of the party to sign up with the UP-led coalition, which brings to mind the saying "If you can't beat them, join them." One can disagree with that decision, but to suggest she was somehow "bought" goes a bit far, especially in light of her track record.
The current situation where the President of Parliament is also Prime Minister in any case cannot be allowed to continue much longer, as it violates the Constitution and separation of powers principle. What would happen if the integrity guarantee mentioned is not provided soon or at all remains a big question mark.
One aspect that bothers many in St. Maarten is the timing of the instruction, with the island having just experienced a hurricane that caused considerable damage, one death and many injuries. Of course, it has to do with the pending completion of the formation process, but people would have liked to also hear from the Netherlands at least something in the sense of sympathy and solidarity in this regard for a change.
