A “new” government has taken office in Curaçao. It’s practically the same team as the one that just stepped down, except that Eugene Rhuggenaath of PAR replaced Stanley Palm of PAIS as Economic
Development Minister, while PS filled its still-open vacancy of Health, Environment and Nature Minister with addiction expert Sigfried Victorina.
After PAIS-parliamentarian Marilyn Moses went independent and withdrew her support from the Ben Whiteman Cabinet I, the PS/PAIS/PNP/Sulvaran coalition decided to bring in PAR to restore its majority in Parliament. That meant PAIS had to give up one of its three ministers to the former opposition party.
These negotiations resulted in the just-installed Whiteman Cabinet II with an adjusted programme that includes priority points of the new governing partner. It also prevented having to dissolve Parliament and go back to the polls early, especially as a regular vote is already due in the second half of next year.
Both the island’s Chamber of Commerce and business association VBC have applauded the move in the interest of stability and continuity within the public sector. Some may believe there is something to be said for that in St. Maarten too.
They ought to keep in mind that the local situation is significantly different because a national decree already has been passed, signed into law and published to send the legislature home and hold snap elections on February 9. What’s more, political parties have registered to participate (see related story) and the voters registry has been closed meanwhile.
One of the arguments of the incoming William Marlin Cabinet for possibly changing the latter now seems to be the unusual circumstance that the decision won’t go into effect until December 15 anyway. Whether this makes it legally correct to repeal such before then is an entirely different matter.
Apparently the intention was to issue a new decree amending the first one in the sense that citizens will go to the polls only after certain problems related to the electoral laws and the Constitution have been fixed. However, this is a rather vague prospect and offers no guarantee whatsoever to voters or political parties that elections actually will take place before they are again scheduled in 2018.
Either way, the people should not be kept in the dark much longer.
