PHILIPSBURG--The Coalition of Eight along with its Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister William Marlin is “fighting against time” to get electoral reform in place ahead of the September 26 snap elections, said Democratic Party (DP) leader Parliament Chairwoman Sarah Wescot-Williams on Monday.
She said at a party press conference on Monday held in Parliament House, “I hope for the best, but the more I look at it and study it, it is a race against time.”
The Coalition and Cabinet will have “to pull out all stops” to get electoral reform to take place and be applicable to the upcoming elections, she said.
The Coalition of Eight does not plan to see another postponement of the snap elections, she said, in answer to a prediction made by United People’s (UP) party leader Member of Parliament Theo Heyliger earlier this month. The Coalition has “no such thinking” about a postponement, even though “not many are rejoicing” about elections just two years after going to the polls, she said.
Wescot-Williams is supportive of changing the Constitution to allow students and other St. Maarteners living abroad to vote in elections. She said along with giving them the right to vote, equally important is facilitating the casting of their ballots in their place of residence.
Students in particular, may not have the money to travel to St. Maarten to make use of the right if they are given it if they cannot cast in where they live, she said. Such a scenario was labelled as discriminatory by Wescot-Williams, because only those who can afford to travel to the country will be able to make use of the right.
On the health front, Wescot-Williams said she is happy Health Minister Emil Lee, in a recent Parliament meeting, has “dispelled the smoke screen” created by the United People’s (UP) party about its supposed plans to build/renovate St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC). The opposition party did not have any plan for SMMC and that was made clear by the Minister, she said.
Getting SMMC “on a good footing” financially should take priority, she said.
Wescot-Williams also chided the opposition MP Cornelius de Weever (independent) for trying to again get part of a still-draft ordinance on insurance coverage for, among others, taxi drivers enacted via a motion last week. The motion, she said, mirrored one tabled in January, 2015 by then UP-led coalition. The voting on the motion has been put off by Parliament until further notice.
On the legislative front, Wescot-Williams is supportive of the proposal in Curaçao, from political party PAIS, pertaining to broadening the scope of the Constitutional Court by allowing it to render non-binding advices in the case of disputes between Parliament and Government.
St. Maarten, unlike Curaçao, already has a Constitutional Court that is charged with reviewing the constitutionality of laws passed by Parliament, if challenged by the Ombudsman.
