In a letter to the editor published on Thursday, the Sint Maarten Christian Party (SMCP), which fell just short of entering Parliament in its first election of September 2016, asked if electoral reform was merely a political stunt. After all, it had been a hot topic during the campaign back then as a result of preceding developments.
While an adjustment in the applicable regulation is now being pursued to allow, among others, students abroad to vote, that fails to address the main problem of “ship-jumping” by parliamentarians to bring about changes in Government. It would be one thing if the persons involved earned their own seats with so-called preferential votes, but usually these “elected representatives” owe being in office squarely to the party and its leader, whom they subsequently seem to abandon rather easily.
Notably, there has been no “seat-theft,” as some characterise it, in the past year, perhaps due to widespread criticism. Mind you, that doesn’t mean it can’t still happen at any time for whatever reason.
It’s reported in today’s paper that Prime Minister William Marlin plans town hall sessions on a draft law to curb the practice. Fraction members would maintain the freedom to leave and declare themselves independent, but their seats may then not be used to form the next Government.
However, this could create a stalemate situation where there is a new majority that might not be able to appoint another Cabinet, but can certainly boycott the existing one in the legislature. Moreover, the Dutch Government sees a conflict with the prevailing “free mandate” principle in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, whereby legislators take an oath to act in good conscience and not necessarily toe the party line, regardless of how they obtained their seat.
The current system, like most in the world, is far from perfect and already the fourth coalition crisis in Bonaire within a year (see related story) once again shows that. Much obviously depends on a reasonable level of political maturity and the voters deserve to expect no less.
