Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG:--- Two months and days after the August 29th Parliamentary Elections there is still no Government on St. Maarten and while the Governor of St. Maarten has extended the formation period for the UPP/De Weever/Marlin coalition to appoint a Ministerial cabinet. SMN News learnt that there is severe trouble in the coalition and that certain members of the UPP are not at all happy with their leader who chose not to involve them in appointing Ministers.One of those persons is Member of Parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson who jumped from the National Alliance and joined the UPP for the August 29th Parliamentary Elections. It is understood that prior to the instruction given to the Governor of St. Maarten the leader of the National Alliance tried to meet with MP Lloyd Richardson to inform him that as elders in Parliament they should try to form a broad based government and to avoid the instruction. Sources within the UP party told SMN News that when the leader of the UPP heard of the meeting between MP Richardson and MP Marlin he decided to appoint MP Lloyd Richardson chairman of Parliament but when the leader of the Democratic Party joined the coalition on October 9th the leader of the UPP took back the position he gave to MP Richardson and handed it to the leader of Democratic Party.According to an UPP insider, the UPP does not see the need to have MP Cornelius de Weever who broke up the NA/DP/US coalition on September 24th, 2014 because they now have on board MP Leona Marlin and MP Sarah Wescot Williams. The source said that the leader of the UPP has decided to grant some of the people that are up in arms with him the opportunity to appoint Ministers if they do not feel comfortable in giving up their seat in Parliament. The source further stated that MP Lloyd Richardson wanted to take up the Ministry of VSA and become the Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs. SMN News learnt that MP Richardson had intentions of changing all the civil servants that are currently working at that Ministry. One person that MP Richardson had intended to bring in as his chief of cabinet is Silvio Lindo from Curacao. Lindo is a senior policy advisor at the Ministry of Justice in Curacao based on the information he has on his LinkedIn profile. Lindo also worked as a senior policy advisor for the Council of Ministers in Curacao.It is now understood that since the grounds in the coalition camp is shaky; MP Lloyd Richardson contacted Silvio Lindo and asked him to take up the Ministerial position in the Ministry of VSA, while MP Lloyd Richardson will hold on to his seat in Parliament. SMN News further learnt that Lindo already sent up his documents to be vetted to become the Minister while Peggy Ann Dros Richardson will no longer get to become the Minister. Other candidates that were on the UPP slate and are up in arms with the UPP leader and felt that they are being bypassed are Miguel De Weever, Terry Peterson. Josianne Artsen Fleming a woman that has years of experience in education, Dr. Rhoda Arrindell, former Minister of Education, Maria Buncamper former Minister of VSA, Jules James, Claret Conner, Angelique Roumou and Jason Peterson. All of the names mentioned are highly qualified persons that ran on the UPP slate for the August 29th parliamentary elections. However, sources say that Claret Conner will be appointed Minister of TEATT but that could not be confirmed.
