NA-UP coalition fails: new agreement with DP and USp

GREAT BAY – The coalition of National Alliance and United People’s party is up in the air after the NA signed a coalition agreement with the Democratic Party and the United St. Maarten Party. The three parties have a 9-6 majority in the new parliament.

Rumors about the failure of the NA-UP coalition have been circulating for the past week or so, after formateur William Marlin had to extend the deadline for his final report to Governor Holiday several times.

While there are only rumors about the true reasons for the failure of this coalition, it is apparent that there were problems with the screening of candidate-ministers. Last week formateur Marlin said this was due to a cyber-attack on the government’s computer systems that made it impossible for candidate-ministers to obtain the necessary documents from the tax inspectorate.

The agreement between NA, DP and USp was confirmed by a source who asked not to be named. Parties are reportedly still negotiating the division of portfolios.

So far there has not been any official confirmation of the agreement from the formateur or from the governor’s cabinet.