Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The House of Parliament of St. Maarten met in an urgent plenary session on Monday.
It was the first meeting of the newly elected Members of Parliament since the August 29th parliamentary elections, and the swearing of the lawmakers on October 10th.
The purpose of the plenary session was to discuss the instruction of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Kingdom Relations given to the Governor of Sint Maarten to postpone ratification of the country decree in the appointment of the Ministers and Prime Minister.
During the meeting on Monday afternoon, which was requested by Members of Parliament the Honorable Franklin Meyers, the Honorable Tamara Leonard and the Honorable Silvio Matser, Members of Parliament denounced the instruction given to the Governor.
Whilst speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Honorable Silvio Matser noted that the instruction given was an attack on democracy.
Member of Parliament, the Honorable Leona Romeo Marlin stated on Monday on the floor of parliament that the instruction as is given by the Dutch government degrades our parliamentary system, our Council of Advice and even our Governor.
Meanwhile, Member of Parliament of the National Alliance, the Honorable George Pantophlet reminded his colleagues the Dutch are here, and that the question is how we get them out of here.
Meanwhile, speaking on the floor of Parliament, the Honorable Christopher Emmanuel made it clear that St. Maarten has an integrity problem.
He also spoke of eighty thousand dollars that offered to him four years ago when he did not have a seat in parliament. Since getting a seat, the stake went from four hundred thousand dollars to two million dollars. It is for this reason he also noted that we should stop blaming others and start looking at ourselves.
Other MPs including Cornelius de Weever, Theo Heyliger, Frans Richardson and William Marlin also expressed strong opposition to the unconstitutional request of the Dutch at the end of round one Monday afternoon.
However the general consensus of the meeting Monday was that the Parliament of St. Maarten is not happy with the efforts of the Dutch Government to call on the islands elected representatives to go against the constitution of the island.
After a short adjournment, the meeting was adjourned until Wednesday morning at ten.
