United Democrats nearly became the first party to earn a majority in Parliament since the dualistic system of government was introduced along with country status per 10-10-10. However, the saying “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” in the end did not apply, as together UP (five) and DP (two) already had a combined seven seats.
National Alliance (NA) also won the same five seats as in September 2016, despite a change in leadership and its then-Prime Minister William Marlin having been forced to resign as such by the Netherlands at the end of last year. United Democrats clearly won, but NA held its own.
The voter turnout was 62 per cent, compared to 65 per cent 17 months ago. This led to some concern but is not actually that bad under the current extraordinary circumstances.
After all, practically nobody who came out from wherever they sheltered for monster Hurricane Irma and saw the devastation would have even dreamed of going back to the polls less than six months later.
Moreover, many homes had been destroyed and residents displaced, while Postal Services St. Maarten (PSS) suffered lots of damage affecting its delivery capacity. The system to have citizens pick up their voting cards in central locations before PSS distributed the rest and finally took what remained to the Civil Registry for collection probably helped prevent the turnout from being even lower, but that apparently did not fully compensate for the difficult situation in which the election took place.
Some issues also occurred with getting duplicates at the polls as had been announced, mainly because the voter lists there are not in alphabetical order, which required calling the Civil Registry to get the verification number. People should also keep in mind that about 10,000 persons were said to have left the island following arguably its worst natural disaster and most may have been foreign non-voters, but certainly not all.
To what extent the recent arrest and subsequent release of its leader Frans Richardson contributed to United St. Maarten Party’s loss of a seat was not immediately clear. However, Monday’s house searches on Election Day in connection with one of the investigations involved just hours before the polls closed did raise a few eyebrows.
It’s hard to judge whether the action could have waited, because one does not know the considerations and law enforcement is generally best left to the authorities, which is why Justice Ministers don’t meddle with individual cases. At the same time, that puts a big responsibility on the Prosecutor’s Office headed by an Attorney General and Solicitor General.
St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) got into Parliament after coming close in 2016, so that there will again be four fractions. The newcomer may well get into government right away as a coalition partner for United Democrats or for both NA and US Party.
A United Democrats/US Party or even a United Democrats/NA combination cannot be excluded either at this point, but considering recent developments the latter doesn’t seem very likely.
In any case no single party received a full mandate, so compromise will be required.
