WILLEMSTAD - Parliament was supposed to approve the credentials of Giselle McWilliam yesterday during a meeting. President of McWilliam’s party MAN, Yves Schoop, who replaced her when she was appointed as minister, was supposed to resign his seat for her return in parliament. Dr. Steven Martina, the new political leader of the party was ready to be sworn in as minister of economic development by Governor Lucille George-Wout. None of that happened.

On Tuesday March 10, Giselle McWilliam was supposed to resign as minister and therefore open the way for Steven Martina to be sworn in. This was the agreement in the party when Martina resigned due to an investigation against him for conflict of interest.

All this was postponed because, according to sources, the Governor wants more information about the case against Steven Martina. Once again, an interest group headed by Carlos Monk, of the opposition party Korsou di Nos Tur (KdNT) filed a criminal complaint against Martina and Prime Minister Eugene Rhuggenaath who was ‘formateur’ of the current government. The group says that the Premier knowingly accepted Martina’s nomination as minister while he did not distance himself from his shares in the insurance company Guardian Group (formerly Fatum).

Martina’s appointment has been postponed until May this year. Several members of the MAN party are also questioning why Martina must become a minister. They believe that McWilliam is doing a good job and shouldn’t resign. Martina explains that he ran a campaign promising that he would work on Curaçao’s economy and he received enough votes to be a minister in this government.