PHILIPSBURG:--- Several Members of Parliament disagreed with the position paper Prime Minister of St. Maarten Sarah Wescot Williams presented to them in the House of Parliament on Wednesday.
The Prime Minister in presenting her position paper on electoral reform said that political parties have to choose quality candidates to place on a list, she also said that Members of Parliament who chose to go independent need to give back the seat to the fraction in Parliament on which they were elected.
However, the leader of the National Alliance William Marlin disagreed with what the Prime Minister told Parliament. He said that when a Member of Parliament decides that he or she wants to go independent and they return the seat to the fraction on which they were elected then that person no longer has a seat in Parliament. "What the Prime Minister is proposing is contradictory and further she is asking us to change the constitution. The Prime Minister is telling us that persons with preferential votes should also return the seat to their fraction. Actually most of the MPs in here got elected by preferential votes. Only one or two people elected themselves in the house of parliament." Marlin further explained that the Prime Minister is trying to tell the voters who they should vote for. "Should the people vote for someone because they dress nicely or should they vote their conscience for someone that is washing cars on the roadside."
Members of Parliament Louis Laveist, Frans Richardson, Patrick Ilidge, Johan Janchi Leonard, Roy Marlin, and Theodore Heyliger also shared their views on the position paper presented to them on Wednesday afternoon.