All over again
Even visitors or people who don’t follow the local news will have noticed that the campaign for the April 20 Island Council elections is on. Despite the call of St. Maarten Pride on the Lt. Governor to regulate and monitor all political signage and on the parties involved to use the mass media more instead, the placing of flags and billboards all along the public roads began even before midnight struck for it to become Nomination Day, when the campaign materials are first allowed.
It promises to be a fairly windy next few days, which is welcome news for the Heineken Regatta, but could also cause signs and flags that are not properly secured to fall and endanger road users, as has happened in the past. The parties and individual candidates have a responsibility of their own to keep a close eye on their campaign materials and make sure they do not become public hazards.
A total of six candidate lists were presented, of which three will have to gather 171 voter signatures to be able to participate, because they currently have no representation in the Island Council or Antillean Parliament. If they qualify they will face a difficult task to actually earn one of the 11 seats in the Island Council, which based on the 64.4 per cent voter turnout four years ago and the 19,151 registered voters this time around should take about 1,121 votes.
In addition to not having to collect signatures, the electoral system tends to favour the established parties in the sense that only those that earn at least one seat outright qualify for so-called residual seats. This “vote threshold” helps prevent too much fragmentation, however.
As the Island Council to be elected and Executive Council to be appointed will probably be in office little more than a year if St. Maarten is to become a County within the Kingdom with a 15-seat Parliament on December 15, 2008, as planned, the parties would do well to adapt their plans and programmes to this reality. The parties that oppose the Final Statement and the Transition Accord to realise the above and to deal with the debt issue should also make clear how long they expect to be in office, as well as how and when they plan to achieve the new constitutional status for which a majority opted in the 2000 referendum, and to tackle the debt problem.
Those who are not particularly fond of the folklore, noise, signage and fanfare that tend to accompany elections and election campaigns had better get used to it: After last year’s Parliament elections and this year’s Island Council elections, the need to elect a Parliament for the new Country St. Maarten means there is a good chance we will be doing it all over again next year.
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