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President Of Parliament Visits The "Lady Grace Morning Show" Friday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Leader of the Democratic Party and Chairperson of the Parliament of St. Maarten, the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams stated on Friday that the matter of election has been used by the outgoing Prime Minister, Marcel Gumbs as a trump card Read more

>MARIGOT/GREAT BAY:---- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs will be the guest on Talking Point radio program on Friday, October 30, said Jacques “Billy D” Hamlet host and producer of the program.
According to Hamlet “The prime minister confirmed late Wednesday evening he will be my guest on the program Friday at 9am.”
Gumbs will be appearing on SOS Radio for the first since been nominated prime minister of St Read more

Mp Lake Says People Relieved With Gumbs Cabinet’S Resignation

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake says he welcomes the resignation of the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet and the making of the way for the new cabinet to be installed.
“It is good they have finally tendered their resignations on Wednesday and will stop embarrassing themselves by not following the rules and making mockery of our Constitution Read more

Prime Minister Gumbs Invites Public To Fire Dept. Open House On Sunday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, who is also Minister of General Affairs and responsible for the Fire Department, invites the general public to the departments Open House on Sunday, November 1 at the Fire Station in Cay Hill.

The Open House is part of the departments Fire Prevention Month of activities that k Read more

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs On Sos Radio Friday

Marigot/Great Bay - Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs will be the guest on Talking Point radio program on Friday, October 30, said Jacques “Billy D” Hamlet host and producer of the program.

According to Hamlet “The prime minister confirmed late Wednesday evening he will be my guest on the program Friday at 9am.”

Gumbs will be appearing on SOS Radio for the first since been nominated prime minister of St Read more

“Saying That Elections Will Stop Ship Jumping Is Lying To Voters”

St. Maarten – Parliamentarians bitched and moaned about rules and regulations yesterday all the way until the final vote on the two motions the new majority presented yesterday morning. It was a losing battle for the opposition UP and its faithful independents and in the end, it did not change anything at all.

Independent MP Cornelius de Weever started with an attack on the new president of parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams Read more

Motion adopted in Parliament to annul the LB to dissolve the Parliament of St. Maarten. PM Refused to attend meeting of Parliament and to submit documents.

style="text-align: center;">Motion to instruct Council of Ministers not to make decision that will affect the country passed.

PHILIPSBURG:--- After some severe resistance from the now minority in Parliament the new majority managed to pass two motions that they presented on Wednesday.
MP William Marlin tabled a motion to annul the Landsbesluit sent by Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs to the Governor of St Read more

Attorney Asks Court To Suspend Decision Against Airport Director

St. Maarten – Attorney Cor Merx filed an administrative lawsuit yesterday against the decision by Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs to refuse airport managing director Regina Labega a certificate of no objection. Such a certificate is required for Labega to keep her position of confidence as the managing director of the airport. PM Gumbs refu Read more

Parliament Discusses The Dissolution Of Parliament

St. Maarten – Parliament meets on Wednesday morning at 10.a.m. to discuss the dissolution of parliament. On the same day, the minister of the Marcel Gumbs cabinet are at the Governor’s cabinet to sign their resignation letters. Governor Holiday has confirmed that he will subsequently sign the national decree to dissolve the parliament.

National Alliance MPs George Pantophlet, Silveria Jacobs and Christophe Emmanuel requested the meeting in a letter dated October 20.

The meeting will be broadcast live on St Read more

Marcel Gumbs Cabinet Tenders Resignation On Wednesday

St. Maarten- The Council of Ministers will meet this coming Wednesday with Governor Drs. Eugene Holiday at the Governor’s Cabinet to tender its resignation.

At this meeting all ministers will make their positions available and the national decree to dissolve parliament will be signed by the governor and countersigned by Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, the prime minister’s cabinet states in a press release last night Read more

Gumbs cabinet expected to submit their resignation on Wednesday next week.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Reliable information reaching SMN News states that the ousted Prime Minister of St. Maarten Marcel Gumbs will be taking in the resignation of his cabinet latest Wednesday next week.
It is not yet known why the Prime Minister and the other Ministers making up his cabinet choose to stay a few more days in office after being notified of the Governor’s final decision on Wednesday.
SMN News could not reach Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs on Friday for a confirmation on whether or not he will submit the resignation of his cabinet or if he will wait for the police to knock on the doors of the Ministers to remove them from office forcefully.
Former Minister of Constitutional Affairs and also former Minister of Justice Roland Duncan told SMN News that the Gumbs cabinet has committed a criminal act and they can be held accountable for their actions Read more

Constitutional Advice Does Not Impress Prime Minister

“The governor cannot tell me what to do”

St. Maarten – Based on the advice he received from a panel of three judges Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday confirmed yesterday in a press release that he will sign the national decree to dissolve parliament as soon as the members of the Council of Ministers make their positions available. “In that case he can wait for a very long time,” Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs told this newspaper last night Read more

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs: “I Will Not Back Down”

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs (left) makes his position perfectly clear while Ministers Hassink, Sams and Connor look on. Photo Today / Andrew Dick

St. Maarten – “I will not back down,” Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs told this newspaper yesterday afternoon while he was walking back to the government building, where earlier yesterday he shed his light once more on the constitutional crisis that holds the country in a deadly embrace.

Professor Arjen van Rijn repeated yesterday in the Antilliaans Dagblad his firm position on the constitutional crisis: when the parliament hits, the cabinet is allowed to hit back Read more

style="text-align: center;">The people of St. Maarten needs to prepare for a long haul with the current political crisis the island has been in since September 30th 2015

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs told reporters that St. Maarten is not in a political crisis but instead it is in a constitutional crisis. Gumbs said his cabinet already sent a letter to the Governor of St Read more

Council Of Ministers Gives Status Update, Pm Addresses Constitutional Issue

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The Council of Ministers of St. Maarten held a press conference Wednesday morning in which they outlined the various plans which they had for implementation as well as a status report of ongoing matters.

VROMI

Minister of VROMI the Honorable Claret Conner stated on Wednesday that the street repair program is now in progress. The Minister stated that more extensive work will be done next year when the season is over. He also stated that most of the work will be done at night.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Minister Ernest Sams who is responsible for Economic Affairs gave an outline Wednesday of the islands Economic Development plan Read more

Governor’S Explosive 2013 Letter Supports Dissolution Parliament

Possible elections pushed back to February 2016

St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs has sent an amended national decree to dissolve the parliament to Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday on Wednesday that would push elections back to February of next year. The amendment to the decree was necessary because the Electoral Council needs more time to give possible new parties the opportunity to register.

An explosive letter Governor Holiday wrote in May 2013 and to then Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams shows that, at that time, the governor supported the dissolution of parliament Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The eight Members of Parliament that now has the majority in Parliament told members of the media that the Governor of St. Maarten already made a clear decision on the current political situation. Leader of the National Alliance MP William Marlin said that the Governor Eugene Holiday clearly informed the Council of Ministers situation in 2013 is the same as the current situation because there is a majority in Parliament that are ready to form a government.
Marlin said the Governor told the Council of Ministers that the constitution of St Read more

SHTA poll: Businesses want anti-ship-jumping legislation

Click here for SHTA graph pdf

PHILIPSBURG--The St. Maarten Hospitality and Trade Association (SHTA), in light of the “current political dilemma,” invited its members to take a poll which showed that the largest single group of respondents wish both for new elections and for new legislation to prevent political “ship-jumping.” However, new legislation was the strongest sentiment expressed overall.

Responses quickly started coming in for the one-question survey sent out to members by e-mail on Tuesday and SHTA released the results on Thursday Read more

Governor requests judges to evaluate positions in ongoing political impasse

~ To provide advice in five working days ~

 HARBOUR VIEW--Governor Eugene Holiday has requested that “a special panel of three judges” from the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten and Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba and the Constitutional Court of St. Maarten “evaluate the constitutionality of the implementation of the political positions” in the current impasse between Parliament and the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet.

Due to the urgency of the situation, the panel has been requested “to provide an advice within five working days.”

The “independent” panel is specifically requested to evaluate the Constitution in the context of the country’s Constitutional Law to “provide a clear legal position regarding Articles 33, paragraph 2; Article 40; paragraph 2 and Article 59 of the Constitution.”

The Governor met with all parties involved in the impasse on Friday to inform them that he deemed it “prudent” to install the special panel to obtain an urgent advice Read more

Dissolution decree corrected, sent back to Governor for his signature

PHILIPSBURG--It looks like elections on December 8 may still be in the cards. The Marcel Gumbs Cabinet has made adjustments to its draft national decree to dissolve Parliament and has sent it back to Governor Eugene Holiday for his signature.

The draft decree was sent to Holiday on the night of September 30, hours after the new National Alliance (NA)-led coalition passed a motion of no confidence against the seven-member Cabinet Read more

Editorial - Anybody’s guess

Governor Eugene Holiday has decided to seek legal clarity on the current constitutional impasse. That’s the gist of a press release from his cabinet at Harbour View on Friday evening.

He did so rather than either signing into law the Marcel Gumbs cabinet’s national decree to dissolve Parliament and call early elections, or sending it up to the Kingdom Council of Ministers for annulment, allowing the recently established NA/DP/USP/Matser/Lake coalition to form a new Government Read more

EXCLUSIVE: APS and Government signed off on sweetheart deal ---- Corruption continues as current government tries to tell the people they want to end ship jumping

style="text-align: center;">APS got VORST land for a symbolic Guilder for housing development.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Gumbs cabinet proclaim they are doing all they can to stop ship jumping and to control the instability of government on St. Maarten by calling for new elections and not working on election reform which will be the only tool to curb the ship jumping. Certain Ministers told SMN News that what they are doing is not for their own interest instead they are protecting St. Maarten’s image.
SMN News is well known for exposing what takes place in government and while politicians are focusing on the bridge loan the Harbor obtained from SZV to settle the ZEBEC deal SMN News got something better Read more

Law-quirk mended by retroactive Rent Committee appointments

PHILIPSBURG--An interesting quirk in the law came to light in late June, whereby St. Maarten Rent Committee decisions since 10-10-10 could be deemed voidable because none of the committee members had been appointed by National Decree (“Landsbesluit”) since then. The Daily Herald has now learned that the appointments have been made by decree, retroactively.

At the time, attorney Joeri Essed of BZSE Attorneys at Law posted to the company’s blogsite that the Court of First Instance had nullified a Committee decision on this basis, and that although it said possible retroactive appointments could validate some decisions, “the playing field is now open for those who have been negatively affected by a decision of the Rent Committee that has been taken after October 10, 2010.”

“On April 13, 2015, the Court...in its capacity of appellate court for decisions taken by the Rent Committee, passed a judgment that may very well have great implications for all decisions taken to date by compositions of the Rent Committee in which one or more of the committee members have not been appointed by Country Decree...”

The grey area provided “food for discussion among legal professionals,” he had posted.

In an invited comment at the time, Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI Secretary-General Louis Brown told The Daily Herald that now-former VROMI Minister Marcel Gumbs had approved a proposal to appoint members, and forwarded this to Governor Eugene Holiday for signing on June 22.

According to the new information, the Governor issued the decree on August 28, and this was signed off by VROMI September 29.

The Committee should comprise three members, including a Chairman Read more

I Am King forum hones in on empowering young men

DAWN BEACH--Nearly 200 young men attended a motivational and interactive I Am King Men's Empowerment Conference on Thursday, where they were addressed by a number of speakers, shared issues affecting them in groups, and interacted with facilitators.

The day-long conference centred on topics affecting male youth focusing on personal development. Keynote speaker Shane “Rizon” Gibson, an international Caribbean/ Gospel musician and sportsman, was given a standing ovation for his words, which focused on advice to the young men in their development into driven and accomplished adults.

Advice included training in the right habits, visualising goals, having heart, not giving up, having a mentor and speaking mindfully Read more