Having been granted another chance to get the required 146 voter endorsements for its candidate list (see related story), Help Our People Excel (HOPE) may yet join the other eight parties on the ballot for the September 26 election. If 66 signatures could be gathered in just one day, it stands to reason the remaining 80 can be collected over three days.
Meanwhile, Parliament Chairwoman and Democratic Party (DP) leader Sarah Wescot-Williams in
today’s paper publicly urges the Government she supports to present some electoral reforms as soon as possible. The William Marlin Cabinet’s main proposal whereby parliamentarians who leave their factions and go independent wouldn’t be able to help form new governments was effectively shot down in The Hague because it goes against the free mandate principle.
However, Wescot-Williams argued that a voluntary Code of Conduct between political parties as suggested by the Council of Advice and changes to the legislature’s Rules of Order can make a difference too. To what extent that would indeed be the case is not entirely clear, because obviously no kind of code or any other agreement overrides the Constitution of St. Maarten.
The latter means that while parties and/or individual elected representatives may make all kinds of pledges, also in writing, they are first and foremost bound by what is prescribed for the public function in the highest law of the land. Even a seemingly watertight contract cannot be enforced if found to be in violation of existing legislation.
With less than six weeks before Election Day one has to seriously wonder whether anything tangible on this issue can actually still be achieved. When it comes to meaningful electoral reform, it does appear time is up.
