Philipsburg:--- The first working parliamentary meeting called on Monday by the chairlady of parliament Gracita Arrindell ended up becoming an embarrassment to the members of parliament and country St. Maarten. Monday's meeting was expected to last a maximum of forty five minutes to an hour but due to a number of procedural errors the meeting lasted over four and half hours. The leader of the United People's Party Theo Heyliger spent most of the afternoon in the AC Wathey legislative hall looking at the procedures. There were times when Heyliger showed his anger at the amount of mistakes that were made by his candidate and now chairlady of parliament. On several occasions, Heyliger was seen shaking his head when each of the mistakes were made. During the first adjournment Heyliger and members of his party along with members of his coalition partner were seen in the hall way caucusing with Arrindell. 
The meeting had a half an hour delay because the coalition majority could not provide a quorum to start the meeting. The six members of the National Alliance later gave the coalition their support so that the meeting could proceed. On the agenda were the approval of the credentials of the three incoming members of parliament, the election of a vice president of parliament, the appointment of an interim general secretary for a period of six months and establishing of an adhoc committee to review the rules of order of parliament.
On the first agenda point the chairlady wanted to appoint a general secretary, and instead of providing members of parliament with a proposal on the candidate and providing parliament with the person's credentials, Arrindell asked parliament to write a name on a piece of paper to appoint the general secretary. Arrindell wanted to appoint Franklin Hanze from Curacao to the position for a period of six months (see related story).
At that point, senator Frans Richardson called for a point of clarification asked the chair which name they should write on the small piece of white paper that was given to them. Arrindell then told Richardson to check with his party leader as she had informed him of the predicament parliament finds itself in and why it was necessary for parliament to appoint a general secretary. At that point, senator William Marlin and leader of the National Alliance faction also made a point of clarification saying that the chair ought to submit a proposal to parliament. Marlin said while he did had a brief discussion about the appointment he did not think handing members of parliament a blank piece of paper and telling them to write down a name was the appropriate thing to do. Marlin said he was looking forward to seeing a proposal which would have outlined the reasons why parliament has to appoint a secretary general for a period of six months and the conditions under which this person is hired. At that point the chairlady still continued to push her point saying that the person was going to take on the position as an interim. However, she was convinced that parliament was not going to proceed unless they saw a proposal and the candidate curriculum vitae.
When they resumed the chair presented a proposal and she asked parliament to rearrange the agenda points since the incoming members had to go over to the governor's office to be sworn in. Instead of asking the members to agree on the proposal to rearrange the agenda points she asked for parliament to vote on the incoming documents. Marlin on numerous occasions asked for points of clarification to show the chair that they were dealing with an agenda and not documents. The procedure frustrated those in the tribune and members of parliament even those that supported the coalition.
When it came to the approval of the credentials for the incoming members of parliament Roy Marlin, Johan Janchi Leonard and Dr. Ruth Douglas, again Arrindell did not provide parliament with the credentials. At that point senator Louie Laveist stood up and asked which credentials they were to approve. The chair again adjourned to appoint a committee of to review the credentials of the incoming members and later adjourned so that the incoming members could be sworn in.
While the meeting of Monday had three agenda points parliament took most of the time to sort out errors made by the chair. Before the closure of the meeting, parliament was able to elect a vice president in the person of Petrus Leroy De Weever who received 10 out of the 15 votes that were casted and an adhoc committee was installed to review the rules of order that the chair wanted to establish. Prior to establishing that committee senator William Marlin on several occasions had to explain the chair that the rules of order that was established by the island council of St. Maarten is already in place which went into effect on the amendment of the Kingdom Charter in articles one and two. Marlin said while parliament has a right to amend the rules of order there is no need to establish rules that are already in effect. He said should parliament be allowed to re-establish the rules of order then parliament would have to do the same with all the laws and ordinances that were put in place prior to St. Maarten taking on its new status.
Adhoc Committee established – Amount of factions in parliament yet to be established.
When it was agreed that parliament would allow the chair to install an adhoc committee the chairlady said that each member of the factions must submit a name to her to form the committee. At that point, senator William Marlin asked the chair how many factions were there in parliament and she said there were four factions. Marlin then said only three political parties were elected and as such he would like to know if any of the elected persons in parliament notified her that there was another faction in parliament. The chair then responded by saying none of the factions had notified her of their faction and she assumed there were four factions based on the political reality.
Even though senator Patrick Illidge has jumped ship from the National Alliance and signed an agreement with the leader of the United People's Party he is yet to submit a letter of resignation to the National Alliance. SMN News learnt that so far senator Illidge and Minister Roland Duncan both members and candidates who ran on the National Alliance slate have not resigned from the National Alliance.