It looks like St. Maarten will get an Easter Cabinet. “Formateur” Luc Mercelina is now to present his final report to Governor Ajamu Baly (see Monday newspaper) by March 29, Good Friday. This one-month extension was due to the ongoing screening of candidate ministers.
Pro Soualiga questioned the latter in last Friday/Saturday’s edition and referred to a ruling from the Supervisory Committee overseeing the Security Service of St. Maarten VDSM chaired by a Justice of the Court in Philipsburg. It reportedly said the intelligence agency has no legal authority to conduct such background checks.
In any case, more time is thus needed to complete the current process, known to take several weeks. Nevertheless, despite this delay there seems little doubt that the envisioned United Resilient St. Maarten (URSM)/Democratic Party (DP)/Party for Progress (PFP)/Nation Opportunity Wealth (NOW) government can be installed before too long.
If so, they will only hold office this year for the last three quarters, enough to still make a significant impact on 2024. This must be done with a budget prepared by the outgoing Jacobs II Cabinet, but it can be amended later to reflect policies of the incoming coalition.
Speaking of which, the draft budget must still be handled and is not part of the legislature’s meetings scheduled for this week. Meanwhile, the end-of-March deadline set by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT looms.
Indications were that three of the four coalition leaders involved won’t join the executive branch. Also considering that relatively many Members of Parliament (MPs) are political newcomers, having persons with sufficient knowledge and experience in public affairs provide strong support to the future Council of Ministers could prove more important than ever.
