Will Council of Ministers be getting a motion of non-confidence?
PHILIPSBURG:--- The removal of Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson by Member of Parliament Frans Richardson will bring about a possible shake up in the five member Government. SMN News has been reliably informed that Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs already indicated to several persons that should Minister Richardson be removed from office he will tender his resignation. Several efforts to reach Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs by telephone on Thursday proved futile.
SMN News further learnt that Minister Dennis Richardson will be replaced by USP candidate Ruben Thompson who is currently the Director of the Justice Ministry.
The UPP source said that the UPP plans to replace Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs with Minister of Economic Affairs Claret Conner. However, this information seems very confusing because the agreement the Minister of Justice signed in the Hague on May 23rd 2015 was done with the blessings of Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, moreover, the five member council of Ministers approved the agreement Minister Richardson signed on behalf of St. Maarten on Tuesday May 26th 2015 in the Council of Ministers weekly meeting. That agreement which was approved by the Council of Ministers was sent to the Parliament of St. Maarten on May 27th 2015.
While several persons have been beating up on the Minister of Justice whom they believed signed a agreement on his own accord which have saved St. Maarten from having higher supervision imposed on the country it is left to be seen if the majority in Parliament will be brave enough to bring a motion of no-confidence against the entire Council of Ministers. When Minister Richardson and and the Prime Minister presented the draft document to establish an integrity chamber on St. Maarten he was given a verbal motion of no-confidence by the Members of Parliament that are part of the current coalition. MP Franklin Meyers flew back from Colombia where he was taking medical treatment to lecture the two Ministers on the draft document that was discussed in the Central Committee meetings. MP Meyers said he would rather die on his feet rather than living on his knees. He furher stated during that meeting that it was time for St. Maarten to call for Independence to get away from the Dutch.
It must be noted that the leader of the United Peoples Party Theodore Heyliger met with the leader of the USP and some of his board members on Thursday May 21st 2015 to discuss the removal of the Minister of Justice. When SMN News contacted MP Richardson on the meeting he held that day he said that he will deal with the removal of the Minister of Justice when he returned from the Netherlands.
The USP board is meeting tonight (Thursday) to further discuss the removal of the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson while coalition partners are currently discussing the predicament they are facing.
Last week Member of Parliament William Marlin stated that since the Minister of Justice took it upon himself to sign an agreement with the Minister of Kingdom Affairs Ronald Plasterk without consulting with Parliament then it is only fitting that both the Minister of Justice and Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs should do the honorable thing and resign since the agreement that was signed by the Minister of Justice was done on behalf of the Prime Minister.
SMN News further learnt that the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson is the one that have been holding the government together since he is the only one that was running the affairs of government especially when dealing with the Kingdom Government to ensure that the Kingdom did not impose higher supervision on St. Maarten. The Kingdom had mentioned several times that they were ready to issue another KB to the Governor of St. Maarten and the latest one was to impose higher supervision on the country.
