Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
St. Maarten —After weeks of speculation, the biggest vote getter in the 2014 general elections, Formateur and leader of the United Peoples Party Theo Heyliger, confirmed he will not be taking up the position of Prime Minister of St. Maarten.
On Wednesday morning Heyliger submitted the names and dossiers of candidates Ministers to form the next Council of Ministers of St. Maarten to Governor Eugene Holiday. At the same time Heyliger confirmed that his name was not submitted as a candidate Minister and thus he will not sit as PM.
Within hours of the process of counting the votes in this year’s election, the DP/NA and US formed a coalition to form a new government, despite Heyligers UP being the party with the most votes, though still falling shy of an overall victory at the polls. However that coalition soon fell apart and Heyliger formed a coalition of his own, with his person being given the job as formateur by Governor Eugene Holiday. Heyliger and his coalition quickly drew fire from Dutch politicians, with Heyliger being branded as “Mafioso†in comments made in The Hague as well as being accused of “buying†the support of Cornelius de Weever, who ran on the DP slate but who was the first to team up with Heyliger to form a coalition government.
These accusations and a subsequent Royal Decree from The Hague to Governor Holiday, which basically prevents The Governor from signing the national decree to ratify the appointment of any candidate minister before additional screening process by authorities of the Dutch Government, lead to Heyliger saying that he does not have to be Prime Minister.
The Governors’ office last night confirmed that the list of names for the positions of Prime Minister and the candidate ministers were submitted by Heyliger yesterday and that the vetting process will now commence.
