PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the Democratic Party Sarah Wescot Williams told reporters on Monday that the Gumbs cabinet basically threw the two independent members of parliament that jumped ship shortly after the 2104 elections to form a government with the United Peoples Party under the bus in the Landsbesluit they submitted to the governor to call for new elections. Wescot Williams said that there are several things that the Gumbs cabinet wrote in the LB as they tried to motivate their reasons for calling for new elections. “The Gumbs cabinet basically trashed the two MPs namely MP Cornelius de Weever and MP Leona Marlin Romeo because they defected from their parties and formed a government with the UPP. This is an un-cohesive document I do not know the intentions if it was to send a message to the people or if they tried to motivate their reasons for calling for new elections. It is still questionable that the Members of Parliament that supported the Gumbs cabinet has accepted the decree, because in the very beginning they started off by trashing the two independent members who defected from their parties and supported them.” Wescot Williams said it’s clear that the Gumbs cabinet is of the opinion that they are bigger than the parliament of St. Maarten. “The fifteen MPs in Parliament were elected by the people of St. Maarten, the people did not vote for coalitions they voted for those in parliament to represent them. Besides that the Gumbs cabinet said based on the instability in parliament they as a government are not able to take far reaching decisions. I need to know what decisions they wanted to take and does the people know about it, were they informed of these decisions that government wanted to take?” Wescot Williams said that said the decree continues to state that no other government could depend on any coalition for stability and that the UPP/De Weever/LRM government were undermined several times and threatened to break even affecting the finalization of their governing program.
Wescot Williams confirmed that when the Council of Ministers takes office they will submit a National decree to annul the decree the Gumbs cabinet submitted that were co-signed to call for new elections. She said based on the motivation given in the national decree leaves them with no other choice because new elections will not solve the problems of ship jumping without electoral reform.
The leader of the Democratic Party further explained that they understood that the Gumbs cabinet is currently working on getting more advices from other advisors. “So far the Government chose not to respect the decision of the governor neither are they respecting the advice given by the three judges. I cannot say what type of advice they are seeking that is still left to be seen, my guess is they are trying to see how they could remain in office. Wescot Williams said that it is clear that the Gumbs cabinet has no regards for legal order because so far they threw the country’s constitution on its head.
Wescot Williams said that the Democratic Party continues to work on electoral reform and while they do not want anyone to think to know it all they are making efforts to do what is right in the interest of the people. She said that the DP chose to apply to attend the Open Government Partnership summit that was held in Mexico. Emil Lee who was at the press conference said that St. Maarten does not even comply to be part of the OGP but when they applied their application were approved, but he went on his alone because of the current political turmoil. Lee said that while at the summit he managed to gather a lot of information that will benefit St. Maarten.