It must have been quite a surprise to many that Governor Eugene Holiday neither insisted on holding snap elections February 9 as announced nor approved postponing them indefinitely (see
Tuesday paper). Instead, citizens still will be going back to the polls early, but now on September 26.
Of course, this is not what he had agreed with the former Marcel Gumbs Cabinet, but the circumstances at the time and developments since have to be taken into account. It was becoming increasingly clear that the incoming NA/DP/USP/Lake/Matser coalition was not going to cooperate with elections less than two months from now, creating the threat of another constitutional standoff.
One also must keep in mind that the Governor’s starting position when the political crisis first occurred had been that the majority in Parliament should in principle prevail, rather than the desire of the Council of Ministers to dissolve the legislature. However, because the impasse continued he came up with the same scenario applied in Curaçao when the then-Schotte Cabinet was forced to leave office back in 2012: to allow the new majority to form a Government, but only for an interim period until snap elections could be held. The latter actually has not changed for St. Maarten, except that the period in question was extended.
On the other hand, five new political parties already have registered to participate in the elections based on the original national decree that was duly published, although it had not gone into force quite yet when the latest adjustment was made. As it turns out, they will have to wait almost eight months more and obviously are not happy, but that’s still better than lacking any date, which in all likelihood would have meant a delay until regular elections were again scheduled in 2018.
The latter is a key element in what must again be considered a compromise. It is true that the Governor is to a certain extent going back on his word, but sometimes that’s what’s needed to arrive at a pragmatic solution.
