PHILIPSBURG:--- Four year governing program adopted into action plan for a period nine months by coalition partners disclosed Prime Minister William Marlin at the weekly press briefing on Wednesday.
Marlin said that since the current government has only nine months in office prior to the September 26th parliamentary elections.
Marlin said during the meeting with the coalition members he took the opportunity to discuss his ideas on electoral reform especially to deal with the so called ship jumping which took center stage after the motion of September 30th motion of no confidence against the Gumbs cabinet.
Marlin said that the way persons are being elected by which the amount of votes a candidate gets in order to get into parliament, he said because of that conflicts and competition even takes place within political parties. He said because of the same thing some of candidates from the National Alliance shifted and left the National Alliance and went to join other parties where they believe their chances are higher for them to get into parliament. He due to all of this there is no loyalty towards to the party on which they were elected, because once those persons with self-interest leaves the party on which they got elected and move on.
Another said that because of the enormous burden is placed on political party prior to elections but after that several members becomes independent members of parliament. Marlin said all of this is due to the system that allows elected persons to jump ship whenever they feel like.
Marlin also reflected the situation that took place in September 2014 when the white, red and blue had everything in place to form the government when one of the members defected and joined the UPP, who later lost support when two members who supported also left that party to form the present coalition. He made clear that the two persons who jumped ship in 2014 to support the United Peoples Party were not elected outright.
Marlin said his proposal is change that whereby the results of an election will then allot the seats to the political party but not to determine who are elected. He said if that was the case then only four political parties would have been elected, namely the UPP (7) seats National Alliance (4) seats, Democratic Party (2) seats and the United St. Maarten Party (2) seats. Marlin said the instruction given by the governor is that a government is formed based on a majority in parliament. He said the coalition will change that to one or parties representing a majority. Marlin further explained that when that is done, no member of parliament could leave and support another party he or she cannot leave one party to support another. He said should any member leave the party they could become an independent member with all the rights and privileges but that person cannot join or support any other party to form a government since the government could then only be formed by political parties. He said should there be no support within parliament then article 59 will kick-in to dissolve parliament. This he said the changes will not stop Members of Parliament to jump ship but one thing for sure that person will not be able to throw down the government or create so much instability on St. Maarten.
Members of Parliament who gave up their seat to become Ministers run the risk of not getting back their seats because of the dualistic system but persons with far less votes decides the fate of the government. He said based on the changes that will be made will allow elected officials who gave up their seat to become Ministers could resign from government and return to Parliament without much hassle.
Another change he said will be made is when a cabinet has to resign after given a motion of no-confidence based on article 33. Another change Marlin said they are hoping to make is to stop all political propaganda around polling stations on election day.
Marlin said the changes will protect all political parties which he said will bring about stability within government.