Nine parties with a total of 135 candidates will be vying for 15 Parliament seats in today’s snap election. There are 22,747 eligible voters, spread out over 20 polling stations including St. Martin’s Home and the Point Blanche prison.
Assuming a turnout of around 70%, parties need some 1,142 votes to earn a first seat outright, which is a condition to qualify for any so-called residual seats. The fact that people must go back to the polls after only seven months may have a negative impact, but local citizens are generally known to take expressing their democratic right seriously.
Since 10-10-10 when St. Maarten’s Parliament was established no single party has achieved an absolute majority, requiring coalitions of two or more. There are those who argue the latter impedes effective governance as it involves compromise to combine campaign programmes and promises. Others feel this way the governing partners can at least keep an eye on each other, avoiding too much concentration of political power.
If each party were to get at least a seat, six would remain to divide between them. All nine receiving the same number of seats is obviously impossible.
As proven in January, the highest number of votes does not necessarily mean “winning” in the sense of getting into government. The two biggest parties with respectively four and three seats ended up in the opposition, while four two-seat factions formed the current coalition.
It was interesting to note in last Wednesday/Thursday’s edition that the Central Voting Bureau took measures to speed up the process of counting votes. Seven months ago the full preliminary results weren’t announced until daybreak, while many stay awake to know what happened despite having to work the next morning.
However, it’s not just about the outcome. Parties have been known to form coalitions even before the vote count has been completed or soon thereafter.
Not everyone agrees, but this is how the country’s parliamentary system works. It’s all about majority support.
