With all that happened in local politics over the past five years voters might be hoping for something totally different when they go back to the polls on February 9, to break through the relative instability that unfortunately has characterised
the public sector during this time. After all, already the fifth government since St. Maarten obtained country status on 10-10-10 – be it an interim one this time – will be installed soon.
It must be pointed out that the electoral deck is not stacked in favour of newcomers, as many who tried have found out. The first hurdle is, of course, the need to enlist popular support for their candidate lists, for which one per cent of the last valid vote is required.
There have been complaints that this system is not very democratic, because anyone standing in line for that purpose at the Census Office could be identified easily as endorsing one of what are normally no more than two or three parties not yet represented in Parliament. On the other hand, it’s well known that citizens who intend to vote for other, established parties and/or candidates still will go and help such people qualify.
The rule is obviously intended to prevent so much political disintegration that it simply becomes too confusing to the voter. Moreover, considerable expenses are incurred with elections and it simply doesn’t make sense to do so for those who have no conceivable shot at getting into office.
In practice, the fact that several days are given to complete the process also enables most to overcome this initial obstacle. However, it’s only then that the hard part actually starts.
There are always several so-called residual parliamentary seats left from the total of 15, in addition to the ones won outright. These are then divided among the candidate lists according to a certain formula, but only among those that already have earned a seat on their own.
This “seat threshold” was 963 votes in 2014, which means one should aim for at least 1,000 votes to stand any chance. That has proven to be a difficult task at best for quite a few budding politicians, but also can be seen as a necessary challenge to demonstrate they indeed have sufficient backing in society to be taken seriously.
