Reality set in yesterday for the Marlin-government. Parliament voted 8 to 6 on a no-confidence motion. The Marlin-cabinet subsequently resigned and used their trump card and submitted a national decree to the Governor to call for new elections and dissolve Parliament in January 2018. These are the facts. However, the coming days as we await the decision of the Governor, political and constitutional pundits will be debating the merits of this situation. Arjen van Rijn is the first to outline the positions in a comprehensive Antilliaans Dagblad opinion piece we have published under the title ” The risks of the…
Author: The Publisher
Press Release from the Governor’s Cabinet Date: November 2nd, 2017 Resignation of cabinet Marlin II Harbour View – On November 2nd, 2017, His Excellency the Governor of Sint Maarten, drs. E.B. Holiday, received a letter from Prime Minister, Mr. W. Marlin, making the portfolios of the Ministers and the Minister Plenipotentiary available and tendering the resignation of his entire cabinet. This resignation takes place as a result of the vote of no confidence, passed by Parliament on November 2nd, 2017. The Governor informed the Prime Minister that he will take the resignation request into consideration pending the formation and installation…
HARBOUR VIEW — Prime Minister William Marlin tendered the resignation of his cabinet to Governor Eugene Holiday on Thursday afternoon following the motion of no confidence against himself and the other ministers. Marlin also presented a draft National Decree to the Governor to dissolve Parliament. Once signed, the Parliament of Sint Maarten will be dissolved on January 31, 2018. To make this possible, elections for a new Parliament will have to be held. Marlin says that the voters of Sint Maarten will now have to decide how to move forward. A one seat majority government is not good for the…
Philipburg — During recent house searches that were done in the “looting investigation” in the aftermath of hurricane Irma investigators found and confiscated several pieces of jewelry that probably came from a store that sells this specific type of jewelry. The investigators are asking the owner who recognizes this jewelry as theirs to come forward to collect their property and to file an official complaint with the department or they can call 54-22222 ext. 213 and 215 to make an appointment. See photos of jewelry items below.
Cul-de-Sac — On Wednesday, October 1st at approximately 8.50pm the 911 Emergency Dispatch Center received a call of an ongoing armed robbery at Le Grand March in Cul de Sac. According to reports a group of six masked men armed with guns and dressed in dark clothing forced themselves into the establishment. The security guards that were on duty were pistol-whipped to the back of head and threatened with their guns. The culprits then went on to rob the establishment of an unknown amount of cash. During the robbery a shot was fired by one of the robbers however, no-one…
PHILIPSBURG – Gross neglect by the Prime Minister in his capacity of Chief of Disaster Management and a confrontational attitude are two of the arguments in the motion of no confidence the Parliament of St. Maarten passed with an 8 to 6 vote on Thursday afternoon, thereby sending the William Marlin-led government home. The motion nor its result were a surprise to anybody. The new majority in Parliament of eight – United People’s party, Democratic Party and MP Chanel Brownbill – signed the motion and the vote on it was therefore a mere formality. Already before the vote DP-Minister Emil…
By Hilbert Haar So now what? The factions of the United People’s party (UP), Democratic Party (DP) and USp-MP Chanel Brownbill sent the William Marlin government home with a motion of no confidence. No surprise there, but the question is now whether this change of the guard is going to do the people who live in St. Maarten any good. For sure, UP, DP and Brownbill – together good for eight seats, or a slim one-seat majority in the 15-seat Parliament – have taken away the obstacles that stood in the way of obtaining financial aid for the country’s reconstruction…
Pond Island – TelEm Group CEO, Kendall Dupersoy, says the company is well on the way to restoring its telecommunication infrastructure to pre Hurricane status thanks to the continued hard work of technical staff and the addition of local contractors and telecommunication experts from Curacao. According to Mr. Dupersoy, there are now more cell sites (15) in full operation with 10 cell sites providing partial operation. This is a vast improvement on the situation just three weeks ago when the last update was given by the technical team,” said Mr. Dupersoy. Mr. Dupersoy is especially pleased that amongst the cell…
HILVERSUM – Constitutional law professor Arjen van Rijn is critical about the “reluctant attitude” of the Ministry of Home Affairs towards municipalities that refuse to register homeless citizens from St. Maarten, Natasja Gibbs reports on Caribisch Netwerk. Haarlem and Leiden continue to refuse to register people who fled St. Maarten after Hurricane Irma. According to Van Rijn, these municipalities incorrectly maintain that “the status of the refugees from St. Maarten is unclear” and that they prefer to wait for guidelines from the ministry. “Nonsense and unnecessary delaying the situation,” Van Rijn says. “There is already a guideline: the law. The…
By Arjen van Rijn It is a familiar pattern in St. Maarten: the incumbent cabinet loses its majority in the Parliament. Every year it’s the same story. In September 2015 two ship jumpers crossed over to the opposition for inexplicable reasons while Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs was unaware of this, sitting in a plane flying back from New York. The rumor at the time was that this was about financial gain. The new majority wanted to start governing immediately after the crisis of confidence had been formalized. After many controversies an interim-cabinet was established and a year later there were…
