SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--Parliament is set to meet in a Central Committee meeting on Wednesday, starting at 10:00am, to discuss the findings and recommendations of the Wit-Samson integrity report, titled "Doing the right things right."

Chairwoman of Parliament Sarah Wescot-Williams said the meeting agenda also includes the handling of an invitation from the Netherlands for her as head of Parliament to attend the Kingdom Concert in December. The concert is held annually to mark Kingdom Day on December 15.

Also on the agenda is an invitation for Parliament to attend a committee meeting of the Latin American Parliament Parlatino next month. This Parlatino meeting deals with women, politics, sustainable development and democracy.

Wescot-Williams held her first press conference in her capacity as Chairwoman of Parliament on Monday in Parliament House. She noted that Parliament has been steadily working since Members of Parliament took the oath on October 10. MPs have seen their "first major action" with the debate and passing of the motion rejecting the instruction from the Kingdom Government to Governor Eugene Holiday to carry out a limitless, perceived invasive screening of minister candidates.

The Council of Ministers are working on "specific steps" to tackle the kingdom decree and to follow up on Parliament's motion of last week rejecting the instruction.

Asked why she was not present at the march against the instruction. Wescot-Williams said everyone has the right to choose how they express their sentiments about the instruction. She dismissed suggestions that no DP members were at the march. "I am sure there were a few DP members in the crowd."

High on the agenda for the chairwoman is completing the list of pending legislation. Several of these require a report from Parliament to move ahead to the approval stage and othersrequire responses from government. Legislation includes the proposed amendment to the Civil Code to end the abuse of short-term labour contracts, the 2011 initiative law to ban single use plastic bags, draft laws on the rights of timeshare owners and the amendment to the law regulating the pension age.

Several Parliament meetings that are pending completion will also be taken up in the near future.

Wescot-Williams has also been taking care of household matters. She held "an assembly" of fraction leaders to hash out the allocation of offices and the submission of members to the various permanent committees of Parliament among other issues.

Wescot-Williams said she had proposed to the fraction leader for their meetings not to be called a "seniorenconvent," but an assembly, as a "seniorenconvent" refers to the meeting of senior MPs or officials.

Training and orientation for MPs were also conducted in the past two weeks.

As head of Parliament Wescot-Williams wants to see MPs "put focus" on their own deliberations and "not wait on ministers to have a discussion." She also wants to see the various permanent committees bring out reports and findings in their field of interest.

Giving her priorities for the DP fraction in Parliament, Wescot-Williams said she intends to continue the push for electoral reform that she started as a prime minister, and to tackle tax and financial reform, and integrity in Parliament.

She is also keen on putting the mechanism in place to execute the right to hold referenda as stated in the Constitution. MPs will have to find a suitable topic to test this right and the procedures that would need to be followed.

Independence for St. Maarten is not a topic to take to a referendum now, she said, cautioning against any call for such, because of the recent instruction from the Kingdom Council of Ministers to the Governor. Such a move should be reactionary, she said.