SXMElections.com

St. Maarten – The Theo Heyliger / National Alliance coalition is to blame for the fact that elections in St. Maarten take place during the hurricane season. That is the position of Prime Minister and leader of the Democratic Party Sarah Wescot-Williams.

In a press release issued yesterday afternoon, Wescot-Williams points out that the Heyliger / National Alliance government that was in office in 2009-2010 decided that the date for transition to country status would be October 10, 2010.

“Someone of that government must have been asleep at the wheel when it agreed to that date for country status. In addition, when the Heyliger / NA government approved the draft of the Ordinance that is law today, certain dates like those of the election and postulation became fixed,” the DP-leader stated.

Wescot-Williams dismissed the claims by UP-leader Heyliger that he has been “clamoring since June 2014 for an early election date” is admitting that the UP-leader was unaware of what was happening under his watch in 2010 when  he was in government with the National Alliance.”

A simple calculation would have shown that with the new parliamentary term starting on October 10, 2010, postulation will always be between July 10 and July 20 and elections will always be between August 28 and September 8. “Unless of course, it is the UP’s intention to dissolve parliament prematurely every election year,” Wescot-Williams adds drily.

The press release goes on to state that, if the UP acknowledged its mistake, “the place to correct it and establish other dates for postulation and election would have been in the Parliament, where the UP-faction has been sitting for approximately four years.”

Wescot-Williams furthermore points out that the UP has been part of the government four roughly three out of the four years of the current governing term – from October 10 until April 2012 and from June 2013 up to now.

“As hard as some would try to throw sand into people’s eyes with this type of statements more and more people are awakening to the fact that political propaganda is exactly that – propaganda. And by the way, the records will show what the DP-leader’s position on the October 2010 date was at the time,” Wescot-Williams stated.