PHILIPSBURG--A workshop on dualism themed "Dualism in Country St. Maarten 10-10-10," will be held for Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards, Island Council members, and several other officials at Sonesta Great Bay Beach Hotel on Wednesday, February 3.
The concept of dualism creates the division of power between the Council of Ministers (executive branch) and the Parliament (legislative branch). These two branches of government will be the new institutions that will govern country St. Maarten, the Government Information Service (GIS) said in a press release on Sunday.
Commissioner Xavier Blackman, Island Secretary Joane Dovale-Meit, Quartermaster for the Parliament of Country St. Maarten Cassandra Janssen and the Sector Directors are also expected to attend the workshop.
"Dualism, the separation of powers, assures checks and balances between the two branches of government, ensuring that the executive branch is supervised by the members of the legislative branch, who are representatives elected by the people," it was stated in the release.
"The current structure of Executive Council and Island Council will cease to exist on 10-10-10 and be replaced by the Council of Ministers and the Parliament of Country St. Maarten. Persons who are Members of Parliament will not be able to sit in the Council of Ministers at the same time."
The workshop is organised by the Island Secretary’s office in collaboration with the Dutch Association of Municipalities (VNG). VNG experts will share their knowledge based on their experiences of dualism in politics. Dualism workshops were first introduced to Dutch politicians in 2002.
Dutch VNG experts will present the pros and cons of dualism based on experiences in Holland. A discussion will then take place on how to introduce the concept of dualism in the new governmental institutions for country St. Maarten at the political level, to achieve a balance between the executive and legislative levels of government.
The four VNG experts who will be providing information to the workshop participants are Nico Schoof, Gilbert Isabella, Marieke Verhoeven and Famke Kweekel.
