WILLEMSTAD – At the end of last year, the former Minister of Economic Development Dr. Steven Martina, who voluntarily resigned, was nominated again by his party, coalition partner MAN, to take the same position again in the current government. The screening process started but two months later, there is still no clarity.

The former minister had to resign because of a criminal investigation against him. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) later suspended the investigation against him conditionally, after which the opposition party Kòrsou di Nos Tur (KdNT), who initially filed the complaint against Martina, appealed to article 15 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to force the prosecution an investigation.

KdNT’s complaint was rejected by the Court on October 22, which seemed to end the case against Martina. The MAN then unanimously decided to nominate Martina again as Minister of Economic Development.

Since then it has been no information about this screening process. On December 10, 2019, Martina announced that he “assumes that the screening process will continue”.

The former minister then refers to the Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath who oversaw the formation of the government.

Premier Rhuggenaath previously stated that he was unable to comment and expressed the wish that the process could be completed quickly. He hopes that there is more information this week.

Mrs. Giselle Mc William was sworn in at the end of August last year to replace Dr. Martina. She was a Member of Parliament for MAN. The question is now; will Martina come out of the screening process successfully? If so, will McWilliam return to parliament and will Dr. Yves Schoop, who replaced McWilliam, say goodbye to parliament?

January will be an interesting month for the coalition partner MAN.