Draft laws must be in
before November 1
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten and Curaçao have until November 1 to hand over their draft constitutions and draft organic laws to the review advice committee.
The committee will be checking if the draft constitutions and organic laws comply with the various criteria agreed upon.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Roland Duncan said time would be very short for the islands to hand in the necessary documents. If the deadline is missed it will jeopardise the Round Table Conference (RTC) scheduled for December 15 and endanger the desired date of January 1, 2010, to attain status change, according to Duncan.
While the Island Council of Curaçao approved its draft constitution and organic laws last week, it still needs to finish its draft new administration organisation. Duncan said he had heard St. Maarten’s Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams saying the new organisation for Country St. Maarten had been approved in June, but he had not seen anything on paper about it.
Wescot-Williams also said the Permanent Committee for Constitutional Affairs was dealing with the draft constitution, but it was not ready yet.
The review advice committee was established on October 20 by chairman of the Round Table Conference Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and consists of experts of all five islands who have not been structurally involved with the drafting of the several laws. The advice of the committee will be forwarded to the future countries for judgement.
Meanwhile, leader of St. Maarten’s People’s Progressive Alliance party Gracita Arrindell said she believed “the stewardship of St. Maarten is in dire need of strong and decisive leadership, given the long list of issues that we face today.”
She stated in a press release issued on Sunday that the issues faced included the constitutional impasse and the recent statements and positions taken by the majority of the members of all factions in the Dutch Parliament that St. Maarten was far from ready to assume its new status in January 2010.
“This topic alone warrants a separate meeting of the Island Council of Sint Maarten to address the people’s constitutional future. A press conference by the Commissioner of Constitutional Affairs simply is not enough and is at best self-serving.”
