People hoping for a political showdown today over United People's (UP) party parliamentarian Jules James having voted on a motion regarding the resort where he is manager will be disappointed, after opposition party National Alliance (NA) withdrew its request for the public meeting to discuss such on Monday (see related story). The original meeting had been adjourned due to the lack of a quorum, as the UP/DP/Illidge coalition – with the exception of President of Parliament Gracita Arrindell (UP) – failed to sign in once they realised that UP fraction leader Romain Laville was not going to be present, as he still had some "issues" with the matter.

So did Governor Eugene Holiday, who had sent a letter to Arrindell expressing concern about James having voted on a motion that directly affected him, which is clearly prohibited in the Constitution of St. Maarten. He was promptly told he had no constitutional role to play as it did not involve any legislation, but merely a motion, while the legislature's Rules of Order do not allow for a revote in such cases.

Obviously not satisfied, NA made a request for a meeting on this very issue that it has now withdrawn, reportedly due to health reasons within the opposition party family. Whether a similar meeting will be requested in the near future is unclear at this point, although NA fraction member Louie Laveist said they would "address it at a later date."

In the meantime, perhaps the esteemed parliamentarians can focus more on increasing their output, because an often-heard complaint is that – other than debating – they have not produced much that is tangible.

Of course, most of legislative expertise lies with government, so one can hardly expert the elected representatives to draft their own laws on a daily basis. What they certainly can do, however, is to present and adopt motions instructing the Council of Ministers to take action in tackling some of the major problems facing the island, on which several articles again can be found in today's paper.