Election candidates are running for office in Parliament

Reminder: election candidates are running for office in Parliament, not to become a minister in government.

Each political party that obtains proportional representation in Parliament via its candidates and is invited to form part of a majority coalition, negotiates a governing program setting out the priorities for the country for the coming governing period, which hopefully will last a full term of 4 years.

Based on the agreed upon governing program the parties then select and appoint persons to be ministers whose cabinets and ministries will be tasked with the execution of the governing program.

Tackling issues such as declining cruise tourism and traffic congestion on St. Maarten hopefully will be priorities chosen in a governing accord between the parties with representation in Parliament.

It is these elected candidates in Parliament who will then be tasked with monitoring and overseeing the execution of the priorities of government based on the governing program and calling government ministers to task if they are not doing the work based on the governing program.

Election candidates are not vying to be ministers. Therefore none can seriously and credibly make any promises that pertains to the executive branch of government, even if they eventually are to be personally appointed as minister. The governing program will be leading in that process.

We must first await the outcome of the elections and the resulting governing program and then hold the ministers accountable for its execution.

This means that voters must evaluate political parties vying for their votes in the upcoming elections based on the parties’ manifestos. The voters must also evaluate the candidates who they feel will do a good job in overseeing the government as members of parliament. For this the candidates need to be able to read reports, go through tons of documents and they also need to be able to write draft laws, initiative laws and amendments. Recent history has shown that many of the elected members of parliament are not capable of such. Therefore, it is imperative that the voters do their due diligence in selecting the best qualified and capable candidates to represent them in Parliament.

Terrance Rey
Publisher turn Political Candidate #12
on the Sint Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) slate