Not like a rose
People who have been reading the front page headlines of the last few days on the latest political developments may have become a little confused, to say the least. While it first seemed that the ruling DP had lost its majority and a new NA-led Executive Council would take office, the main actor in what seems like a bad soap opera called “Politricks” in the end did not make good on his threat to support the current opposition party.
What his exact motives were and to what extent games were played are not entirely clear at this point, but the problem is still far from resolved. While now-independent Island Councilman Louie Laveist has agreed to continue to support the current DP Executive Council, there is no further word on his stated intention to remain a non-active commissioner after his tasks were divided among the four other commissioners while he was being held as a forgery suspect.
The letter in which the DP informed the Lt. Governor as Chairman of the Island Council that there again was support from six of the 11 Island Council seats mentioned an Executive Council consisting of the four other commissioners and not Laveist. Whether this means the latter will have to resign as commissioner is not known, however, at least not yet.
The Lt. Governor has indicated in any case that having such a non-active commissioner is hardly standard practice and would not be in keeping with the spirit and principles of a democracy, calling it “highly undesirable.” To what extent he will be able to exert pressure to stop Laveist from staying on as commissioner remains to be seen.
But the issue is also crucial for the DP itself, which is already forced to swallow depending on Laveist’s support after he was in the process of “jumping ship” and the party had indicated he should give up his seat in the Island Council. To now accept his staying on as non-active commissioner with a salary provided by the taxpayer would undermine the DP leadership’s credibility even more.
The million-dollar question is whether Laveist has accepted that he can’t remain a commissioner. If not, and talks on the matter are still ongoing as has been indicated, this could well become a new breaking point and again lead to a political crisis.
Time will tell, but no matter how you look at it, the DP doesn’t exactly come out of this smelling like a rose.
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