SXMElections.com

Mp Frans Richardson Sounds The Alarm: Social Media Messages: Kill The Prime Minister

St. Maarten News – Messages on social media suggest killing the prime minister, members of parliament and their corrupted friends, MP Frans Richardson said during a meeting of parliament about vote buying. While Richardson considered there threats far more important than the issue of vote buying, no other MP even reacted to his statement.

“I am going to protect myself and my family,” Richardson said Read more

Little Opposition To 2016 Draft Budget

MP Tamara Leonard: “I feel like we have to take a hit too.” Photo Today / Milton Pieters

St. Maarten News – The parliament seemed to be going in record tempo through the debate about the draft 2016 budget yesterday. By 6.35 p.m. all speakers had put in their two cents in the first round; only nine MPs used their right to address the issue Read more

Government About To Collect 13 Million From Casino Sector

Parliamentarians happy with withdrawal increased road tax

St. Maarten – By providing the receiver’s office with a mandate, the government is able to collect 13 million in tax arrears from the casino-sector, Finance Minister Richard Gibson said yesterday afternoon during a meeting of the Central Committee where he, as announced on Wednesday, withdrew the draft law to increase the road tax in 2016.

In a brief introduction, the minister told parliament that he would like to make some changes to the draft the previous government had submitted Read more

Mp Johan Leonard About The Cause Of Ship Jumping: Our Party Leaders Blatantly Disrespect Their Members

MP Heyliger is still smiling after the severe criticism from his fellow-faction member Johan Leonard (left). Photo Today / Milton Pieters

St. Maarten – The attitude of party leaders is the main reason for ship jumping, United People’s party MP Johan Leonard said yesterday morning in an unexpected sharp attack on UP-leader Theo Heyliger Read more

Samuel And Richardson Return To Parliament

Rodolphe Samuel and Hyacinth Richardson (third and second from right) wait to be sworn in. Photo Today / Milton Pieters

St. Maarten – Rodolphe Samuel and Hyacinth Richardson took the empty seats of National Alliance faction leader William Marlin and Silveria Jacobs yesterday afternoon in parliament, after a small committee of three, consisting of MPs Leona Marlin-Romeo, Dr Read more

Chair Aborts Meeting Within Sixty Seconds: New Majority Calls Action Mp De Weever Illegal

St. Maarten – Acting as the second vice president of Parliament, independent MP Cornelius de Weever wrong-footed parliament yesterday morning by opening and closing a meeting designed to appoint a new chair within sixty seconds after which he “ran out of the hall,” according to Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams.

De Weever called on article 37 of the rules of order, after remarking that the cabinet had submitted a national decree to dissolve parliament Read more

Green Light For New Government, But Pm Gumbs Disagrees: “Even The Governor Can Make A Mistake”

St. Maarten – Governor Drs. Eugene Holiday has given the green light to the National Alliance-led coalition to form a new government. There will therefore be no elections on December 8, as would have been the case if the governor had ratified the national decree the cabinet sent to his office to dissolve the parliament and to call new elections.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs “absolutely disagrees” with the decision and his cabinet does not intend to make its positions available Read more

St. Maarten Government Falls Again: Fifth Cabinet In Five Years In The Making

UP-leader Theo Heyliger (left) and MP Silvio Matser on 10-10-14 when they were still political allies. Now the political marriage is over: “I cannot take the internal abuse anymore,” Matser said yesterday Read more

St. Maarten Government Falls – Three Coalition Members Defect

Picture: St. Maarten Parliament

NEWSFLASH!! St. Maarten– The Gumbs government fell shortly after 12.30 p.m. today (Wednesday, September 30, 2015) after the parliament passed a motion of no-confidence submitted by Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams with an 8-7 vote Read more

Tax-Compliance Measures Are Not Working

Cft: “Structural overhaul personnel costs necessary”

St. Maarten – Measures the government has put in place to increase tax compliance are not working. This appears from the reaction from financial supervisor Cft to the second execution report 2015. In the first half year, tax revenue fell 8 million guilders below budget. For the whole year, St. Maarten expects to collect 8.6 million guilders less than budgeted.

Nevertheless, the government wants to increase income levels for 2015 to 470 million guilders but, as this newspaper already reported last week, this does not have the approval of the financial supervisor.

“By taking additional measures St Read more

Garbage Meeting Fizzles: Many Questions, No Answers And No Solutions

St. Maarten – At the end of a long meeting, finally there were some fireworks when opposition MP asked Vromi-Minister Claret Connor to answer one question: “Is there a contract with a company to build the waste-to-energy plant and how does this jive with your visit to a project in Miami?”

Minister Connor, who had just said that he would be able to inform the parliament on Monday when he would be able to answer the more than one hundred questions MPs had asked, did not bite Read more

Parties Upset About Delay Landfill Meeting

St. Maarten – Opposition parties National Alliance and Democratic Party are upset about the postponement of a meeting they had requested about the landfill. “We do not take the postponement lightly,” the parties said in a press statement last night.

The meeting was initially moved to last Wednesday – beyond the four day term between a request and a meeting being held – due to the absence of Vromi-Minister Marcel Gumbs, the closing and opening of parliament and the swearing in of new ministers.

“All valid reasons for us to agree to Wednesday Read more

Seventy Ideas To Enhance Fight Against Crime: Parliament Sends Money To Justice Ministry

President of Parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – The parliament will transfer 300,000 guilders of its travel budget to the Ministry of Justice as one of the measures to enhance the security and safety of the country, President of Parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson says.

The parliament discussed close to 70 points with the Council of Ministers in its closed-door meetings last week, following the killing of Police Officer Gamali Benjamin Read more

Dp Reflects On The What To Do Next: “Crime Has Broken This Island”

From left: Hasani Ellis, Sarah Wescot-Williams and Emil Lee at yesterday’ press conference Read more

Silent March Honors Officer Benjamin

Workers and officers take part in a silent march to show their solidarity with Officer Gamali Benjamin. Photo Today / Milton Pieters St. Maarten – More than 200 people marched the streets of Philipsburg yesterday in solidarity with the injured police Officer Gamali Benjamin. Nagico Insurances closed its doors at 3 p.m. and staff members walked with police officers and supporters to the spot on the Front Street were Benjamin was gunned down on Wednesday.

Emotions ran high and people were weeping and consoling each other on their way to the location Read more

Kingdom Council Of Ministers Decides About Instruction

St. Maarten / THE HAGUE – The Kingdom Council of Ministers met for the last time before the summer recess. On the agenda is, among other issues, the instruction to St. Maarten.

Financial supervisor Cft sent an advice to the council on July 3 to give the country an instruction. Cft-chairman Prof. Dr. Age Bakker already announced this option during a press conference on June 25.

St. Maarten should have settled its payment area with social insurance agency SZV and pension fund APS before the end of June to avoid the instruction.

However, the deadline passed and the parliament went on recess Read more

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

Committee Puts Three Questions To Council Of State: Do Kingdom Instructions Violate Our Autonomy?

St. Maarten – On the day of the extended deadline, the permanent parliamentary committee for Kingdom Affairs and Inter-parliamentary Relations formulated three questions about the procedures around instructions by the Kingdom Council of Ministers to the governor. The questions will be added to those already formulated by the Dutch Second Chamber and sent for advice to the Council of State.

The instructions the governors of Aruba (about its 2014 budget) and of St. Maarten (about integrity-investigations and about the establishment of the Integrity Chamber) are still a hot topic in the autonomous Caribbean countries of the kingdom.

The questions the Second Chamber members have formulated are, in the opinion of the committee-members in St Read more

Parliament’S Revamped Website Debut’S Today

St. Maarten – The House of Parliament’s website has been revamped.  The new site is back online in a new format as of today, March 2 at the same website address: www.sxmparliament.org.

The Presidium of Parliament was recently given a preview of the site prior to it going live online.  It was viewed by President of Parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson, 1st Vice President Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo, 2nd Vice President of Parliament MP Cornelius de Weever, Secretary General Nancy Joubert, and Webmaster Alvin Prescod.

The Home Page features the meeting calendar allowing the general public to know which weeks are sittings of the House.  Additional information will be provided with time and agenda points once convocations of house sessions have been communicated to MPs.  The page also features a list of documents available for download; audio files; and Parliament TV allowing online viewers to follow House sessions in real-time.

There are also web links to other government entities of the country such as Government of St Read more

Prime Ministers Asjes (Curacao) And Gumbs (St. Maarten) Strengthen Ties

Ivar Asjes (l) presents a book to Marcel Gumbs entitled “Curacao: Religions, Rituals and Traditions.” Photo cabinet Prime Minister

St. Maarten – Prime Ministers Marcel Gumbs and Ivar Asjes both dubbed the latter’s visit as important in establishing a basis for continued good relations between the two countries.

PM Asjes met yesterday with Governor Eugène Holiday, President of Parliament Dr Read more

President Of Parliament Condemns Charlie Hebdo Attack

St. Maarten – President of parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson has expressed deepest sympathy to the Republic of France, its people and Government during these trying times on behalf of the people and the members of the Parliament of St. Maarten.

“The event in the French Republic hits very close to our hearts as part of our island, the Northern half is part of France.  We express our sympathies to the President of the Collectivite, the Territorial and Executive Councils and to the people of St Read more

Curacao’S Prime Minister Asjes Pays A Working Visit To St. Maarten

WILLEMSTAD – Prime Minister Ivar Asjes is on Sint Maarten for an official working visit until January 13. This will be the first time the two Prime Ministers of the former Netherlands Antilles islands will meet. Marcel Gumbs was recently sworn in as the Prime Minister of Sint Maarten, four months after the parliamentary elections were held Read more

Answers Will Have To Wait Until Mid-January: Parliament Wants Clarity About Housing Foundation

St. Maarten – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs answered the call to appear in Parliament as the acting minister of public housing within 72 hours after he was sworn in on Friday. Members of Parliament appreciated that, even though Gumbs sent them on their way with a flea in their ear, after listening to questions about the chaos of the St. Maarten Housing Development foundation for more than two hours.

The minister brought to mind the words he spoke on Friday in the constituting meeting where his team officially took over the reins: “The country needs tranquility, stability, civility and prosperity.”

Furthermore, Gumbs noted: “Integrity has been a buzz word this year Read more

Lloyd Richardson Elected Chairman Of Parliament

St. Maarten – Parliament elected Dr. Lloyd Richardson of the faction of the United People’s party yesterday morning as the successor of Sarah Wescot-Williams as its chairman Read more