The people of St. Maarten needs to prepare for a long haul with the current political crisis the island has been in since September 30th 2015
PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs told reporters that St. Maarten is not in a political crisis but instead it is in a constitutional crisis. Gumbs said his cabinet already sent a letter to the Governor of St. Maarten to inform him that they would prefer to have a decision within three days rather than five days. Prime Minister Gumbs said that he is the responsibility of the Governor. He said the Governor is like the King therefore someone has to take the political responsibility of the Governor which happens to be the Prime Minister.
Further to that he said that even if the three judges does not advice in their favor they will not respect the advice given by the judges because judges are not versed on constitutional law. Prime Minister Gumbs further explained that the situation in 2013 when the NA/DP/ Lavelle government was in that government wrote a letter to the Governor of St. Maarten telling him basically the same thing they are saying now to the Governor.
Prime Minister Gumbs said the only difference is that the county could not have held elections in 2013 because there was no electoral council established at the time and St. Maarten needed to have an electoral council place before the country could hold elections. Gumbs said that the electoral council was established early 2014. The Prime Minister said that the Governor has to either sign the Landsbesluit or send it to the Kingdom for them to either ratify it or annul it.
Asked if the Governor should sign the LB if his cabinet would submit their resignation. Prime Minister Gumbs said that the minute the governor signs the Landsbesluit then he will submit the resignation of his cabinet but they will remain in office to organize elections.
Prime Minister Gumbs dissected the press release that was sent out by the governor, and he made clear that the court has nothing with this constitutional crisis. He made clear that the governor only have two choices and if he does not want to sign the LB then he must send it to the Kingdom because St. Maarten is still part of the Kingdom and it’s the Council of State that has to approve or annul the LB and not judges.
