SXMElections.com

Mp Silveria Jacobs Becomes New Na-Leader Next Year

St. Maarten – The leadership of the National alliance will transfer in 2016 from MP William Marlin to MP Silveria Jacobs, current party leader Marlin said yesterday in answer to a question from this newspaper Read more

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First Meeting Ad Hoc Committee Integrity: Code Of Conduct Suddenly A Priority For Parliamentarians

St. Maarten – Thirteen years after former Lt. governor Franklyn Richards proposed it for the first time to the Island Council, the ad hoc committee Integrity of parliament met yesterday and named establishing a Code of Conduct for parliament a priority.

“I believe it is a priority for parliament to have a Code of Conduct,” committee-chairman Cornelius de Weever said.

The committee’s meeting was off to what felt like a reluctant start – the objective of this first meeting being to set the perimeters for the committee’s activities and responsibilities Read more

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Scholar Julio Romney; “St. Maarten Is Not A Country”

GREAT BAY – “Sint Maarten is not a country.” That statement from political scientist Julio Romney during the presentation of his book St. Maarten: Our Constituent State Constituent Framework resulted in a heated debate with Acting Governor Reynold Groeneveldt, who strongly disagreed. Romney however, stuck to his position: “For Pete’s sake, you cannot even determine your own budget,” he said, slightly exasperated.

Romney’s 128-page book about St. Maarten’s governing system dives deeper into what Romney calls incorrect political terms, like ‘Country Sint Maarten,’ ‘dualism’ and ‘separation of powers.’

According to Romney – a scholar of comparative government and politics – these terms are “conceptually taken out of context.” His explanation in the book: “St Read more

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Romney’S Draft Electoral Ordinance Prohibits Going Independent

St. Maarten – Political analyst Julio Romney presented on Wednesday evening his proposal for electoral reform in the form of a draft electoral reconciliation ordinance. The draft contains two key differences with the current system. One is the way seats are distributed among the parties that contest the elections; the other is a ban for Members of Parliament to declare themselves independent.

Romney supports the D’Hondt system for seat distribution. In this system, the numbers of votes won by each party are divided by a series of increasing denominators – from 1 until as high as necessary to arrive at a result.

Using this method, the results of the 2014 elections would have been exactly the same in terms of seat distribution Read more

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