The possibility of a national government has been mentioned by, among others, St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) leader Wycliffe Smith. People might think this translates to some type of “super cabinet” with the various party leaders or top professionals, but neither is the case.
What it means is that the Council of Ministers would be supported by all four parliamentary fractions. Of course, that can change at any time during the governing term, especially because every individual member has a so-called “free mandate.”
But even such a government normally requires negotiations on ministerial portfolios. With seven ministries in total, some allocation system based on the number of Parliament seats earned by United Democrats (7), National Alliance (5), United St. Maarten Party (2) and SMPC (1) would probably still be in order.
If this scenario materialises perhaps a division of respectively three, two, one and one Ministers could be worth exploring. Usually the biggest parties deliver the Prime Minister and Parliament President, but the post of Plenipotentiary Minister in The Hague could, for example, be used to compensate US Party for getting only one Minister with two seats, just like SMPC with just a single seat.
Readers who believe these kinds of considerations should not really matter so much, certainly in these times of great socioeconomic crisis on the island, have a point, but that’s simply how local politics work. The reality is that most parties will always try to get the maximum out of talks to form a government, with their rank and file expecting no less.
Like it or not, such is the nature of the political beast.
