PHILIPSBURG:--- Members of Parliament of St. Maarten are holding their heads while they continue to hold meetings that can be considered null and void. Article 45 of the constitution of St. Maarten clearly states that the Parliament of St. Maarten consists of 15 members. However, Member of Parliament Theodore Heyliger has been officially suspended from the Parliament of St. Maarten since Friday, March 1st when his pretrial detention was extended since Heyliger is spending his second 8 days behind bars.
Article 50 of the constitution states that when an MP is in (VOORLOPIGE HECHTENIS) he or she is automatically suspended from parliament even though that MP does not lose their membership unless convicted. The situation facing the parliament of St. Maarten can be considered historic since it is the first time an MP has been suspended since the island took on its country status on October 10th, 2010.
This situation has the parliament of St. Maarten dumbfounded even the chair of Parliament does not know how to proceed even though they can have the next person on the United Democrats slate with the most votes sworn in to deputize for Heyliger. That person is former MP Jules James who garnered 213 votes during the February 2018 snap elections.
However, it is understood that not even the Electoral Council knows how to handle the current situation since this is the first time an MP has been suspended and basically the electoral ordinance does not state how the council must proceed now that an MP has been suspended. Moreover, the constitution of St. Maarten is also very vague when dealing with this particular subject. Article 50 of the constitution dealt with the suspension of a Member of Parliament but it did not deal with how the person to deputize can be sworn in.
SMN News understands that the Prosecutor’s Office is supposed to inform the Parliament of St. Maarten about Heyliger’s automatic suspension but so far that has not been done, even though the majority cannot even have a quorum to hold a meeting unless an MP from the Opposition signs in for the meeting.
SMN News learned that the Members of Parliament held a closed-door meeting on Tuesday to see if they could find ways on how to deal with this matter, however, the parliament of St. Maarten is yet to address the matter publicly.
SMN News contacted Attorney at Law Jason Rogers for a comment but he was not available prior to publication.
