In response to recent media articles disseminated by the United People’s Party regarding that party’s wish to have elections before the Hurricane Season, Prime Minister of St. Maarten and the leader of the Democratic Party the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams clearly stated that due to the Heyliger/ National Alliance Coalition Government in 2009-20010 deciding that the date for the transition of St. Maarten from a part of the Netherlands Antilles to its own Country would be the tenth of October 2010, elections are required to happen during the hurricane season; “Someone of the NA/Heyliger government from 2009-2010 must have been asleep at the wheel when in 2010 that government decided and agreed to the October 10th date for country status. In addition, when that NA/Heyliger government approved the then draft of the Electoral Ordinance which is law today, certain dates, such as those of election and postulation became fixed.
“To claim today that the UP has been clamoring since June 2014 for an early election date is admitting that the UP leader was unaware of what was happening under his watch in 2010, when he was in government with the National Alliance.
“Heyliger and the NA gave their approval to the date of October 10, 2010 and a simple calculation would have shown that: With the new parliamentary term starting on October 10, postulation will always be between July 10th and July 20th; therefore elections will ALWAYS be between August 28 and September 8. (Unless of course, it is the UP’s intention to dissolve Parliament prematurely every election year); If the UP acknowledged its mistake, the place to correct such and establish other dates for postulation, election etc. would have been in the Parliament of St. Maarten, where the UP faction has been sitting for approximately 4 years’ In addition, the UP has been part of the country’s government, along with the DP for roughly 3 of the 4 years of this governing term, 2010-2014, to be exact: from 10/10 – 4/12 and 6/13 to present. As hard as some would try to throw sand into people’s eyes with this type of statements, more and more people are awakening to the fact that political propaganda is exactly that, propaganda and by the way, the records will show what the DP leader’s position on the October 2010 date was at the time,” commented Party Leader and Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams.
