Article 98, section 1 states:
For the purpose of filling the seats assigned to each list, the candidates on the list that won a number of votes equal to or in excess of the list quota are elected.
Article 98, section 2 states:
If fewer candidates on a list than the number of seats assigned to that list have won a number of votes equal to or in excess of the list quota, the candidates are ordered according to the number of votes that they have won, starting with the candidate who won the highest number of votes.
The seats are assigned in order of the highest candidates on the list who have not yet been elected.
The board of the USP could in Court try to appeal on article 98 of the Election Ordinance GT no. 10 of the year 2010 that the seat of Mr.
Leona Marlin-Romeo belongs to the USP.
That is basically correct when the Election Council is allocating the seats.
But after the swearing in of candidate Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo to Member of Parliament 2014 – 2018, the law then only refers to
Honorable Parliamentarians.
Parliament knows 15 Parliamentarians who were candidates on lists of the political parties. But once sworn in as Parliamentarian each individual is obliged to work to and for the interest of the people of Sint Maarten.
Parliament knows the phenomena of political factions, mostly of groups of people that ran election on one and the same political slate. In Parliament they group together in a faction. But by law they are each one individual Parliamentarian who has to vote of free conscience.
So there is nothing against a person forming part of a faction to vote against the majority opinion of that faction. That’s his or her
fundamental right to do so.
In this case and Frans Richardson, the political leader of USP, and Leona Marlin-Romeo, assigned to Parliament by USP, can vote for their own personal conviction. And that need not be the same!
The party USP as such has nothing to do with how they vote in Parliament, that’s not their call. What the USP can do is next election not to place mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo on their list.
But if the USP insist on ‘kicking’ her out of the party, USP is then basically telling Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo that she has to go ‘independent’.
They surely can’t anymore request their party seat back, because Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo is OUT on the request of the USP itself ! 🙂 she is
no longer member of the USP faction, so USP has nothing to say to Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo.
And Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo can now make us of: Articles 16, section 1 of the Rules of Order for the Parliament of Sint Maarten states:
In the event of a split in the faction, which leads to the formation of one or more new factions, then the financial compensations of the
factions in question shall be set at the amount which are found by dividing the compensation which would have gone to the undivided
faction, in proportion to the number of members involved in the split-up.
So Mrs. Leona Marlin-Romeo could would want the USP to ‘kick’ her out of the party, because then she can get financial funds from Parliament for her one-person faction. SHE BENEFITS- SHE WINS, FRANS AND USP LOSE!
This seems to me a real dilemma for the USP and I look forth to see how they will deal with this.
