The election victory of MFK in Curaçao (see related story) is indeed historic. With more than 55% of votes the party led by Prime Minister Gilmar Pisas not only won a first-time absolute majority in Parliament, but did so with 13 rather than the required minimum 11 of 21 seats.
This development in its monetary union partner is also noteworthy for St. Maarten, where it has often been argued that winners of elections are unable to fully execute their campaign platform because of the need to form coalitions. Many on the islands also as part of the former Netherlands Antilles have tried to prevent such by getting more than half the legislative seats with slogans such as “11 te’sun” in vain.
MKF now gets that chance to govern alone, without having to negotiate ministerial portfolios and action programmes with others. It can do so from a luxury position, with two seats to spare.
How this all works remains to be seen, because some reservation was also expressed regarding concentration of power and its implications. Any perception of political favouritism or victimisation should – more than ever – be avoided.
The biggest challenge perhaps lies in carrying that sole responsibility. MFK has to provide not only 13 parliamentarians but nine cabinet ministers.
Finding suitable candidates for the latter from its ranks – on or even off the election list – may not prove easy. In the Pisas II Cabinet, Finance Minister Javier Silvania took over the Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature GMN for several years after MFK’s then Minister Dorothy Pietersz-Janga was forced to step down over trying to discontinue the “mouth caps” embezzlement court case.
Other MFK ministers ended up doing double duty as well when the coalition with PNP broke up last December. The Pisas II Cabinet needed support of the one-member KEM faction and independent parliamentarian Zita Jesus-Leito to stay in the saddle, but these two new governing partners faced issues with ministerial nominees and their screening.
That could conceivably become the only obstacle to a quick government formation process. New candidate ministers must go through the usual screening process and recent experience has shown this is by no means a forgone conclusion.
