UPDATE
PHILIPSBURG--Parliament had to put off the approval of the membership of its permanent and ad hoc committees due to what appears to be an internal issue in United St. Maarten Party (US Party). Party leader Member of Parliament Frans Richardson drew the legislature’s attention to what he called “a typo” under the proposed members for the Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations. The typographical error, he pointed out, was the name of fellow MP Rolando Brison listed as the party’s proposed committee member. This committee’s membership is open only to faction leaders, which Richardson indicated he was.
Rolando Brison
Parliament Chairwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams stated that the Secretariat of Parliament had been informed that Brison was the two-seat party’s faction leader. Richardson countered that such should have been communicated to the Secretariat in writing. Wescot-Williams said communication had been received on May 2.
Richardson went back to the topic later in the meeting when dealing with another agenda point – the draft 2018 budget. He said it had been his intention to give Brison the faction leadership. The letter was written, but he never signed it to pass on the post. His query, Richardson claimed, was that he wanted to have things done right.
The agenda point on the committee was put off for later in the ongoing plenary sitting, to better resolve the situation.
Prior to Richardson’s objection, United Democrats, led by MP Theo Heyliger, had requested that his name be removed from the committee and replaced by MP Dr. Luc Mercelina. It was at that point that Wescot-Williams stated that the committee membership is only open to faction leaders. Heyliger is his party’s faction leader.
Aside from the US Party issue, Wescot-Williams also put the agenda point on hold to further discuss the membership of the committee.
