So close and yet so far
A mere 115 votes. That’s how close PPA came to keeping its seat during Friday’s Island Council elections.
It’s also how close the Democratic Party came to ending up in the opposition benches, because National Alliance earned the first residual seat and the outcome would most likely have been 5-5-1, in which case chances are the two opposition parties would have teamed up to “vote dem out,” as the campaign slogan said.
“If,” “could’ve,” “would’ve”; it’s all hypothetical of course, but the result should send a message to the DP Government that there are concerns among the electorate that need to be addressed. The economic progress has been there, but some of the social, infrastructural and environmental consequences now deserve more attention.
To many, the prospect of yet another election next year is not exactly attractive, because campaigns, especially when they are as fierce as this one was, tend to take a lot out of the supporters and candidates of the different parties, mentally, physically and often financially. Yet if St. Maarten is to become an autonomous country in the Dutch Kingdom effective December 15, 2008, with a 15-seat Parliament as planned, that’s exactly what the island faces.
There has been some talk of having an interim Parliament of 11 seats, which the Island Council to take office on July 1 could then become, so that elections don’t have to be held, but if that were to be the case, it should have been agreed on long before Friday’s vote. If a majority (DP) were to push it through now, having just won the election, the opposition would rightfully cry foul.
But while it appears the incoming DP Government will have only a year before it is judged once again by the electorate, the party can take some comfort in the fact that, according to experts, had the vote been for a 15-seat Parliament, the result would have been DP 8, NA 6 and PPA 1, and not 7-7-1.
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