By Hilbert Haar
PHILIPSBURG – Formateur MP Theo Heyliger will not run in the next parliamentary elections. In a reaction to a request for an update about the formation of the new government, Heyliger informed stmaartennews.com: “Well, one thing Hilbert, this is my last election.”
Friday it was just a week ago that Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday appointed MP Theo Heyliger, leader of the United Democrats, as formateur with the request to submit his final report about the formation of a new government as soon as possible. But so far, the task appears to be tougher than previously thought.
On Thursday, rumors circulated that the formateur would present the new government on Friday. But Heyliger dismissed the story: “I have been trying very hard but I doubt it,” he informed us about the state of affairs. “A broad based coalition is a very hard challenge.”
Later the formateur added that he is “trying to make sure we have a government that works and can last. It is also very tough as I sit on the outside due to the screening but I get blamed for everything.”
The United Democrats, a merger of the United People’s party (UP) and the Democratic Party (DP) won the parliamentary elections on February 26. The party won 7 seats, while the National Alliance (NA) won 5, the United St. Maarten party (USp) 2 and the St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) 1.
The formateur’s job to form, as the governor instructed, a broad-based coalition is hampered by two main factors and a third one that has to do with integrity. The first one is that personalities within the UD and the second largest party NA do not see eye to eye. The “human factor” as informateurs Dr. Nilda Arduin and Jan Beaujon described it in their report to the governor, stands in the way of a stable coalition of these two parties.
The second stumbling block is the position of the SMCP. Party leader Wycliffe Smith has made clear that he will not be part of a coalition with the USp.
The integrity-related issue has to do with the reputation of the USp. Party-leader Frans Richardson was arrested shortly before the elections on suspicion of election fraud in 2016 and of taking $370,000 in bribes. The number two on his list, Rolando Brison, is haunted by a history of embezzlement at his former employer Winair. And the number three vote-getter, Maria Buncamper-Molanus has a sentence for tax fraud and forgery to her name, though the case is still on appeal.
Hence formateur Heyliger’s statement that the formation of a broad-based coalition is “a very hard challenge.”
This is the reality: if the UD cannot come to an understanding with the National Alliance, the formateur has only two options left: a coalition with the USp that would give the government a support of nine seats in the 15-seat parliament or a combination with the SMCP; in that case, the coalition would have a 1-seat majority.
The choice is therefore between a tainted government (with the USp in the coalition) or a reasonably clean government based on the seats of UD and SMCP.
There is of course yet another scenario possible. If formateur Heyliger does not manage to present a workable coalition, he will have to give his mandate back to the governor. In that case NA-leader Silveria Jacobs would most likely take the lead, but she would be confronted with an impossible task that takes all parties back to square one.
The NA cannot form a coalition with the USp because it falls one seat short of a majority and it will not get the SMCP on board to make up the difference.
So the only way to go for the NA would be finding common ground with the UD – something that is currently apparently a bridge too far.
