PHILIPSBURG--Parliament’s Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization (CCAD) on Tuesday selected members for a petit committee to gather information related to the possible calling of a consultative referendum on independence.
Members of Parliament (MPs) who were selected for the petit committee are independent MPs Ludmila Duncan and Grisha Heyliger-Marten, Party for Progress (PFP) MP Melissa Gumbs and National Alliance (NA) MP Angelique Romou.
The Committee has a maximum of four weeks to complete its tasks after which it will report back to the Committee.
The committee is tasked with gathering information regarding the applicable laws and legalities related to the calling of a referendum, the financial implications, the timeframe that would be necessary for the calling of a referendum, the relevant stakeholders that should be consulted and a public relations plan to ensure that the community is properly educated on the matter.
Monday’s meeting was a follow-up to a CCAD meeting held in December 2022, which was adjourned and was to be continued on January, 26 2023, but postponed at that time due to technical difficulties regarding a resolution from One SXM Association. Independent MP Duncan proposed the formation of the committee during the meeting held in December. Duncan said at that time of presenting her proposal that “on the assumption that all of the members of this committee or the majority of members agree that the issue of independence is of national public interest, that a petit committee be established to create and propose a roadmap towards actually hosting or putting in place that referendum with all of the details that come with that. That committee will be responsible for proposing a roadmap from now until what could be that referendum.”
On March 1, One SXM Association appeared before Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee for Electoral Reform, with a request to Parliament to convene a consultative referendum on the matter of Independence for St. Maarten. The referendum was proposed to address a sole question: Yes or No to independence for St. Maarten. The Association had proposed that the referendum be convened within the current parliamentary term or at the latest simultaneously with the next parliamentary election.
During Tuesday’s CCAD meeting, Chairperson Rolando Brison proposed that the petit committee be granted a maximum of four weeks to complete its tasks. At the end of the four weeks, a CCAD meeting will be convened where the petit committee is expected to present its findings. Once those findings are presented, CCAD members will be able to weigh in and contribute, after which a report will be compiled which will constitute a road map for the calling of a referendum on independence.
