Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
That the electoral reforms discussed in Parliament not too long ago were never realised is old news by now. Other than the police and VROMI officials regulating how close to each voting bureau the candidates can promote themselves, employees receiving two instead of four hours to vote and the polls staying open until 8:00 rather than 7:00pm, not much has changed since four years ago as far as Election Day goes.
Even concerns about the use of electronic devices to take pictures of filled-in ballots as invoices to collect when selling votes was not tackled. The idea of removing the black curtains in front of the booths to prevent this has been dropped, partly because of possible privacy issues, while a court ruling in the Netherlands upheld the right to take so-called "selfies" while voting and to post these on social media, even if the photos show whom the persons involved actually supported.
Still, anyone seen taking a photo inside a voting booth today will create the suspicion that they might be selling their vote. This won't necessarily stop them, but it's at least some form of public scrutiny.
One also would HOPE that voters shy away from such practices, particularly in light of the recent trial for alleged vote-buying, even if there was no conviction. After all, the judge considered the accusations proven, but threw the case out because the role of the party leadership had not been investigated sufficiently.
It regarded UP, but truth be told, the custom of handing out gifts from as innocent as T-shirts and other goodies to electronic appliances, paying people's bills and doing them other favours during campaign time is nothing new and every party elected into office over the decades has been guilty of such to varying degrees at one point or another. That doesn't make it right, certainly in this day and age, but it's also good to keep things in perspective a bit.
The reality is that one hardly can legislate and regulate everything, but in a healthy democracy the electorate is assumed to have a reasonable level of maturity and to take the act of choosing representatives to run the country seriously. People simply should be civilised enough to use their sacred right to vote wisely, based on conviction, and not frivolously. It's first and foremost a matter of own responsibility.
By the way, if none of the participating parties or politicians seems appealing, a possible tip is to apply the process of elimination. In other words: select the most unlikely party to back and continue with the others until only one remains, then do the same for the candidates on that list.
It may seem a little crazy to vote for "the least worst" in this manner, but it is better than basically throwing one's vote away by not showing up or by depositing a blank ballot. Most important, keep in mind that come Saturday morning, regardless of the result, the people of St. Maarten still must go on together.
