Estates of Sint Maarten
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Estates of Sint Maarten Staten van Sint Maarten |
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| 3rd Sint Maarten Estates | |
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| Type | |
| Type | |
| History | |
| Founded | 10 October 2010 |
| Leadership | |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 15 |
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Estates political groups
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DP (2) |
| Elections | |
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Estates voting system
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Proportional Voting |
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Estates last election
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26 September 2016 |
| Website | |
| www |
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The Estates of Sint Maarten (Dutch: Staten van Sint Maarten) consists of 15 members, each elected for a four-year term in a general election. The first Estates were installed on 10 October 2010, the date of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, and consisted of the members of the island council elected on 17 September 2010. The current President of Parliament is Claret M. Connor.
The two most important tasks of parliament is the realization of legislation for Sint Maarten, and secondly, to exercise control over Government’s policy. Under the first task, Parliament exercises this task together with Government, so Parliament is called the co-legislator. In order to carry out the aforementioned, the Parliament has a number of powers that allows it to fulfill its two tasks: The right to approve and amend the budget; The right of interpellation where each Member of Parliament (MP) has the right to question ministers of government in the General Assembly of Parliament; The right of initiative allows MPs to submit draft laws on their own initiative; The right to amendment, allows MPs to amend legislation that has been submitted to Parliament; The right to ask questions, every MP can question a Minister orally or in writing; The right to instigate inquiries allows parliament to institute an inquiry into the state of affairs in an event in which Government is involved.
The Government of Sint Maarten is based on a political party having a majority of the 15 seats in parliament. A political party would need to have eight seats (8) in order to govern outright. However, more than one party can form a Government if parties can reach an agreement to do so. An independent member of parliament can also be part of the ranks of the opposition or be part of the governing party(s).
The current parliament took office on 31 October 2016 and will serve for a four-year period, until 2020 when new elections are due. The current parliament comprises the following:
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