PHILIPSBURG--Democratic Party (DP) leader Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot-Williams said on Tuesday that she “totally agrees” with the amended Decree which shifted the election date from February 9, to September 26, 2016.
She said too that no one’s rights are being trampled on. “I totally agree with the amendment and believe the October 29 Decree should have been annulled, given the circumstances.... However, the December 15 date was approaching and the Governor [Eugene Holiday – Ed.] chose this path.”
Asked whether electoral reform can be achieved before elections, the DP Leader, who is also Chairperson of Parliament said: “I believe some parts can and will be achieved. We must, or else even this amendment will be in vain. From Parliament’s side I will do all that I can to deliver that part, as I promised the people I would do from the very beginning.”
She said her position and that of the DP on this issue remains as she had always expressed. “The Governor’s first communiqué of October 5, to the Gumbs-cabinet should have been upheld and that was that. The Gumbs-cabinet received a motion of no confidence and should tender its resignation. The new majority in Parliament should nominate its Ministers and form a Government. The then Government could only act as a caretaker Government. In my opinion, the Governor back then, at all cost wishing to keep this matter local and not involve The Hague found himself in a stand-off with the former Prime Minister [Marcel – Ed.] Gumbs.”
“The quid pro quo [you sign and then I resign – Ed.] should have never been allowed because this saga was allowed to drag on, at the end the infamous Decree of October 29, was signed. There is no one who can convince me that the use of Article 59 under these circumstances was not a misuse of same. Article 59 is not the right to vote. And no one’s rights are being trampled. Elections on the basis of Article 59 are exception, not the norm and at the discretion of the Government.”
She continued: “Could such a decision be changed? I would ask, why not? The only argument you hear is ‘it is not usually done.’ And then I ask, where? To make the point that the reference is usually the Netherlands, which is wrong. With more than 200 years as a democracy, we are nowhere close to them.”
She said an additional “novelty” was the December 15 date that the Gumbs-Decree was supposed to have taken effect. “The jury is still out on what that means in actuality. Fact is, it would have been even more complicated had that date arrived and nothing was done to amend or annul the October 29 Decree.”
