PHILIPSBURG--The William Marlin Cabinet has not had any word from Governor Eugene Holiday on the national decree to cancel the one of the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet on the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of snap elections on February 9, 2016. The decree of the Gumbs Cabinet, though published in the National Gazette, does not come into effect until Tuesday, December 15.
Prime Minister William Marlin said on Wednesday that his Cabinet “expects” the Governor to sign the draft decree. “We have sent the decree to the Governor. My point of departure is the decree will be signed and if not signed, we deal with it then. I am not focusing on if it is not signed. My focus is on it will be signed,” Marlin said in answering a query from the press.
Marlin said several advices are on his desk in connection with the holding of the snap elections, but he has not signed them. “I have not signed them off. They are all on hold, because as far as this Government is concerned there will be no elections on February 9,” he said.
Marlin said he had taken note of the “campaign” in the community and on social media by the United People’s (UP) party and its leader Member of Parliament Theo Heyliger about the Cabinet supposedly trampling on the people’s right to elections. He said the Cabinet is not taking away any right and that holding an election would not halt ship jumping by MPs, the primary cause of unstable government.
The campaign is one “to mislead the people” and make the current Government out to look like it is “greedy for power,” said Marlin. It is all “political hot air and rhetoric” from the UP.
The people’s right was “trampled on” by the UP and its coalition partners when they “licked out the stomp from under” the red, white and blue coalition following the August 2014 Parliamentary Elections.
