~ Cabinet to start with five ministers ~
HARBOUR VIEW–The interim government will be sworn in by Governor Eugene Holiday at the Governor’s Office in Harbour View at 10:00am Tuesday, November 19. After the ceremony, Holiday and the newly-appointed ministers will hold the constituting meeting at the Government Administration Building on Pond Island.
Holiday received the final report from National Alliance (NA) Member of Parliament (MP) and formateur Silveria Jacobs on Saturday, November 16.
The ministerial candidates were vetted based on the regulations on the pre-screening of candidate ministers, which are laid out in the National Decree Appointment procedure candidate ministers and candidate minister plenipotentiary.
The interim cabinet will start with five ministers. Jacobs holds the post of Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs. NA MP Ardwell Irion will assume the position of Minister of Finance and will act in the capacity of Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports (ECYS). NA MP Egbert Jurendy Doran will take up the post of Minister of Justice and will act in the capacity of Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs VSA.
Air traffic controller Rene Violenes, who ran as the #8 candidate on the NA slate in the last parliamentary election, will take up the responsibility of Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications (TEATT).
Christopher Wever will retain his post as Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure VROMI.
The position of Minister Plenipotentiary was not addressed in a press release from the Governor’s Cabinet on the composition of the new cabinet. It is yet unclear who will fill this position or whether it will remain vacant in the interim.
Jacobs accepted the commission to form an interim government supported by a majority in Parliament comprising the NA faction, the United St. Maarten Party (US Party) faction and independent MPs Luc Mercelina, Chanel Brownbill and Rolando Brison.
“The new government consists of ministers who will, amongst others, give priority to conclude the legislation regarding the combating of money-laundering and financing of terrorism, to execute the agreements made with the Netherlands regarding the financing of the national recovery of St. Maarten, including the financing of the rehabilitation of the airport, to further prepare the execution of the election, to take steps to realise electoral reform by bringing the Ordinance Registration and Finances of Political Parties and the Election Ordinance in accordance with the Constitution, and to conclude the budget for 2020,” according to the press release.
Three openings will be created in Parliament once MPs Jacobs, Irion and Doran take up their ministerial posts. The Daily Herald understands that these vacancies will be filled by candidates who were next in line on the party’s list in the 2018 elections.
This means that former MP and Chairperson of Parliament Rodolphe Samuel, who was the sixth-highest vote-getter on the party’s slate at the last election, Anna Richardson, the seventh-highest vote-getter on the slate, and Ludmila Duncan, the eighth-highest vote-getter, are expected to take up positions as MPs.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/92542-update-interim-govt-will-be-sworn-in-tuesday
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