The Central Voting Bureau will validate results of the February 26 election in a public session at Parliament House today, Monday. A recount for any of the 20 polling stations or even a full recount as done in the most recent election of 2016 are possible, but only with substantial grounds for such.
All invalid ballots including blank ones will be reviewed, which can lead to some minor adjustments but is not likely to affect the final seat division. Nevertheless, it could change who gets into legislature where that was decided by only a few votes like on the United Democrats list between Emil Lee (259) and Perry Geerlings (258).
As the two “informateurs” named by Governor Eugene Holiday explore options for a new government, some have suggested keeping the existing interim cabinet or most of it. The argument is that they only recently took office and would need more time to finish the job, particularly initiating the all-important reconstruction process with funding made available by the Netherlands.
Of course, the reality is that the outgoing UP/DP/Brownbill coalition supporting the current Ministers and now merged into United Democrats would no longer have a majority in the next Parliament, as it captured only seven of the 15 seats. This means at least one more seat is needed and any other partner coming in would undoubtedly want to appoint a Minister of its own.
However, readers should keep in mind that one portfolio was actually left vacant, because only six instead of the usual seven cabinet members were installed and Justice Minister Connie de Weever is also acting Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (TEATT). The post of Plenipotentiary Minister in The Hague is open too, with at this moment just Deputy Minister Hasani Ellis representing the country in the Netherlands.
So, the possibility that several of the current Ministers may return to office should certainly not be excluded. Depending on how the political negotiations go, it might be worth considering, for continuity’s sake if nothing else.
