Philipsburg:--- While reports were published in one of the Daily Newspapers indicating that the National Alliance/Heyliger and Laviest Government plans to have their party supporter Roland Tuitt installed as the Acting Lt. Governor. Leader of the National Alliance and leader of government William Marlin denounced the story saying it is false. Marlin said his party members of the executive council never had any discussions on neither replacing nor even adding another assistant to the Lt. Governor cabinet. Marlin said there are reporters on St. Maarten that lack ethics and they are writing stories for their own personal agenda or the agendas of their political supporters.
In an invited comment Tuitt refused to comment on the article in question saying when he is ready to speak out he would. The former commissioner under the SPA led government said he has nothing to say on the article and that questions should be directed to the reporter who chose to write the story.
Some two weeks ago, Marlin told the acting Lt. Governor Millicent de Weever she needed to call the opposition to order as they were abusing the rules of order during an island council meeting. His public statements to the acting Lt. Governor prompted the chairman of the island council and Lt. Governor of the Island Territory Franklyn Richards to call the council to order last week Monday. At a press conference afterwards, Marlin said he had indicated to Richards that de Weever did not seem to know the rules of order and he needed to speak with the opposition about respecting the rules of order. Since then Marlin did not comment on the issue. The leader of government said on Wednesday that the people of St. Maarten would soon realize that the newspaper and the reporter in question are misleading the public with some of the articles that are being published.
SMN News has learnt that Lt- Governor Franklyn Richards has submitted a request for a second acting Lt. Governor since other islands has two acting Lt. Governors. Reliable sources say that over the years Richards was not able to take his vacation or leave the island for extended periods since his acting on several occasions was not available. According to the island regulations, any person that is to be appointed from the private sector as acting Lt. Governor of any island territory has to be approved by the Governor General prior to it being sent to the executive council for approval.
In the meantime, the Democratic Party faction has sent a letter to the executive council posing several questions pertaining to the replacement of the acting Lt. Governor Millicent de Weever.
The letter from the DP faction was submitted on Wednesday and they want to know if the media reports pertaining to this story is true and if so when did the executive council proposed the replacement. The DP faction also wants to know what reasons were given to the central government to have the acting Lt. Governor replaced and how many candidates were submitted. The opposition also wants the names of all the candidates that were submitted and what is the response of the Central Government.
SMN News understands that the opposition faction held a meeting at the faction office on Wednesday morning prior to sending the letter to the executive council.
