Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG--"Horribly exaggerated and absurd" was how Justice Minister Dennis Richardson described claims from the United People's (UP) party that his campaign guidelines for the August 29 Parliamentary Elections were interfering with freedom of expression and were in conflict with, among others, the Constitution.
Richardson, speaking at the Council of Ministers' Press Briefing on Wednesday, did not specifically name UP, but that party has been the only party that has come out publicly to voice its disagreement with the minister's guidelines.
He said, "How does securing the safe navigation of the limited number of roundabouts that we have constitute such a breach, while one can clearly see that the island is completely pasted in signs and billboards of political parties without any interference from the minister or the police? I don't subscribe to that point of view."
Richardson said he followed "the tradition" of granting for the campaign "a general dispensation of rules and regulations" that by law would have to be followed by those engaging in political campaigns with some conditions attached to ensure that aspects that are in play, such as traffic safety, public order are, or can be adequately taken into consideration. These dispensations have been and are called a general permit for political parties and have been used since 1997, according to the police force.
He said, if giving the electorate some extended reflection time - 48 hours - before voting, unacceptably impedes the freedom of expression, and if keeping a reasonable distance from the polling stations to alleviate the pressure on voters, constitute an unacceptable confinement of the freedom of expression, then neither are points of view he agrees with.
On placement of billboards and other political signage, Richardson is glad that the police have established that the political parties "are abiding or intend to abide by the clearly necessary limited corrections in certain situations, in particular the roundabouts."
He added, "I must admit that the creative way in which some of the parties have installed their campaign material does not interfere with traffic safety or public order and the police are showing the necessary restraint and flexibility in this regard."
"The essence here is not about law. It should not be necessary that it is prescribed by law for aspiring politicians and ministers to do the right thing, or the right thing right. It is about campaigning in a civil manner," Richardson said.
The minister said his guidelines stemmed from the April 18, 2013, motion unanimously adopted by Parliament about the electoral and campaign reform. He had hoped the guidelines would have met with certain approval from political parties. However, that did not materialize, as topics were "rejected based on legal challenges" in view of the Constitution and the freedom of expression, as well as legal interpretations of the Law on public manifestations.
Other legal minds, however, are of the opinion that the General Police Ordinance APK allows for some regulation, be it within restricted terms.
With differing opinions, Richardson said he resorted to take an approach based on the Law on Public Manifestations, the APK and his expectations "that based on the adopted motion, past practices and some common sense that a number of measures would be generally acceptable by and be non-controversial for the participating political parties."
