Electoral Reform to Ensure Political and Economic Stability
The Prime Minister of St. Maarten the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams commented on her weekly radio show One on One with the Prime Minister on 98.1 on Friday that the Decree establishing the Electoral Council has been signed: "The Decree establishing the Electoral Council as required by law has been signed off and will be published and made public at the beginning of the week. The Governor and I signed off the decree and, as I mentioned, will be made public in a few days," commented the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister also elucidated that she wants to maintain her focus on two aspects of Electoral and campaign reform: "I want to keep the focus on two aspects of reform. The way we conduct politics and creating a more level playing field in terms of politics; no harassment, no coercion, no vote buying through monetary terms or gift giving etc. I have stated on several occasions that when you consider that some of these matters are already addressed in our penal code it means that they are already prohibited according to law. Considering this it is clear that most of the things that Parliament wanted to see addressed are already. It now comes down to informing and educating the population regarding enforcement. I have informed Parliament very specifically where the regulations lie and where enforcement is located. The second part is a more constitutional and political reform. The most incisive matter would be to look at our constitution when it comes to the Independence of members of Parliament. There is, or should be, an emphasis on the part of political parties regarding the philosophy and plans of action regarding politicians as part of political parties and that emphasis does not jive with the thinking of an Independent Member of Parliament because they get in that position on the strength of a political party based on the responsibility of the political party for the acting of their Member of Parliament," clarified the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister also reiterated that the instrument of calling irregular elections needs to be used cautiously. "The calling of irregular elections is something which needs to be considered very carefully as it destabilizes the country and has wide-scale social and economic consequences. Snap elections cause political and economic instability and that was definitely not the intention with which this was put in the Constitution. Imagine that anytime there is a misunderstanding in Parliament new elections are called. This creates uncertainty and instability which in turn results in a lack of planning and the associated economic issues," concluded Prime Minister Wescot-Williams.