Only 4 days to go until our elections are here, and I still have no clue who to vote for. Im still trying to gather all information on electives, and on what all of the parties stand for. For me this is the main difficulty, I can not find the differences between parties.

Image: sxm-elections.com

Let me explain you a little bit about our history.

For starters our little island called Sint Martin has a French side and a Dutch side. The French side is a part of the collectivite of France, but the Dutch side is a constituent country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 10-10-2010. This means Dutch side Sint Martin (what will be the main topic today) basically became independent. From that moment on we are now heading towards our 7th elections since that moment. Tight schedule of yearly falling governments right?

The main reason for all these falling governments?

Politicians jumping ship and turning out to be felons. What.... politicians going to jail you mean? Yeah, I really mean that our previous (and current) politicians have criminal records, and they are ruling over a country. How is this possible then? Yeah, excellent question...That is exactly the part that I am also failing to understand.

And with jumping ship I mean that the politicians are conveniently changing party, and the moments where coalitions are trying to be formed. For the Dutchies among us, Imagine Mark Rutte stepping over from VVD to GroenLinks because then he has a chance all of a sudden to make a coalition.

But dont these guys value the points of their party then??

Yeah thats the whole problem. These parties do not have a specific view on how the country should be running. In general these parties are just groups of people working together in the hope they will get a majority in the chamber. Not meaning at all they have to agree on all points that they stand for. In general, our politicians stand for themselves.

Image: Pixabay

Vote for a person, not for a party

Thats was the advice people gave me last elections here. Because being member of a party does not mean anything, apparently it is about the individual. For me and a lot of others, this is an issue. Because I dont know all of these politicians. So I only have to rely on stories of other, because online is also a jungle of non information.

The best site I found at the moment is http://www.sxmelections.com but also not everything on this site is complete. The biggest party is missing their manifesto, and reading a manifesto from an other party I really got annoyed

seeking to reduce the wage tax bracket percentages

Okay cool, good idea... But what do you strive for, how do you want to achieve this?

focus on cleaning up and beautifying Sint Maarten;

Again good idea. But where to start, how much budget do you set aside?

Promote professional education, second chance opportunities and training courses

Fantastic cause!! But how do you want to promote this, and where are you planning on getting our budget from?

And thats why I get so annoyed

All of these statements are empty words! Of course everybody want lower tax and higher incomes, but reality is... Money doesnt grow on trees. If you have a country which is currently in a troubled situation (our main source of income 'tourism' is down after hurricane Irma), you have to be super transparent about your spending pattern, or it will bite you in the butt.

Previous failures are back on the list like nothing happened

• The previous prime minister was forced to resign in October because of mismanagement during and after the hurricane. And now he is right back on the list again.

• The number 1 face of an other party was arrested two weeks ago because of tax fraud.

• I heard a radio-ad of a politician who was preaching about getting greed out of the system. A couple years ago she was convicted for embezzlement.

Really, all of this is a joke right???

Unfortunately it's not. And I still have to make a choice on who to vote for.

There is also good news:

I found my voting card shoved through the window today. 4 Days before elections, nice in time right ;) Who cares, it reached!