Franklin Meyers next Prime Minister for St. Maarten…
Meyers likely to become the fourth Prime minister of St. Maarten in the space of seven years. The Governor named the Faction leader in Parliament for the UP party Mr. Franklin Meyers to be the one responsible for exploring the possibility of putting a government together for the interim period of up to snap elections. Meyers is requested to present his report to the governor by the fourth of December. From information received it appears that the UP deputy leader is ahead of timing and has already submitted a list of candidate ministers to be screened.
Heading that list is Frankie Meyers himself as Prime Minister, Leona Marlin Romeo candidate Minister for Justice while Mr. Claret Connor who had no problems with screening in the past will once again take up the ministry of TEATT. Jorien Wite who ran on the DP ticket last election has been named to fill the position of Minister of Education Youth Culture and Sports. For the most important Ministry of Finance, a virtually unknown person in the political arena Mr. George Willems a financial controller at APS has been picked to become the next Finance Minister for St. Maarten. A civil servant from the VROMI ministry Miklos Chomain Gieterson will take up the minister position as Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) and the Minister of Plenipotentiary in The Hague is expected to be filled by Cornelius De Weever.
If the screening goes well for all candidates, we will see two more MPs leaving parliament to become Ministers and the return of three former MPs from the UP Party who are next inline based on the amount of votes they received in the last Election.
The governor E.B. Holiday confirmed in a statement to the press of having received the progress report from Mr. Meyers and that the process of screening have begun. Areas of screening involves a background review of (a) the personal and professional credentials, (b) the financial position, (c) the fiscal (i.e. tax and social security premiums) compliance, (d) the judicial background including possible suspicious transactions, (e) the security background and (f) if necessary, the health condition of the candidates. The purpose of the screening is to assess the integrity, independence and solvency of the candidates as well as the stability of the new government.
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