SXMElections.com

Merkman Resigns From Upc, Declares Himself Independent

~ Simmons to stay in coalition ~

ST. EUSTATIUS--Island Council Member for United People’s Coalition (UPC) Reuben Merkman has resigned from the party of former Commissioner Reginald Zaandam, and has declared himself an independent member of the Island Council, on Thursday.

“It is with mixed feelings that I am coming to the people of Statia to inform you that on August 11, 2016, I received a letter from my party, the UPC, formally commencing the procedure to expel their representative to the Island Council,” Merkman said in a joint press release with Commissioner Derrick Simmons Read more

Brian Mingo Speaks Out On Telem Ceo Position

PHILIPSBURG--TelEm’s present Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Brian Mingo decided to break his silence and speak with The Daily Herald about the process of selection of the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) position. Mingo applied for the top spot and was overlooked by the present Government. Businessman and TelEm board member Kendall Dupersoy was selected by the shareholder representative recently Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Fernando Fired From Viewpoint

PHILIPSBURG--News travelled quickly on Wednesday afternoon when radio personality Fernando Clark was fired with immediate effect by PJD2 radio Managing Director Don Hughes from the radio programme Viewpoint on 102.7FM Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

No Mou Signed Yet, Dominican Republic

PHILIPSBURG--A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Dominican Republic and St. Maarten has been shelved for now.
Due to time constraints of newly inaugurated Dominican Republic President Danilo Medina, the MOU could not be signed with St. Maarten Prime Minister William Marlin during Marlin’s working visit for the inaugura Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Programa De Eliminación De Mosquitos Comienza El Sábado

Traducido por Máximo Castro

PHILIPSBURG. – La erradicación de los criaderos de mosquitos es un esfuerzo continuo del Ministerio de Salud Pública, Desarrollo Social y Trabajo, dijo el Ministro Emil Lee durante la Conferencia de Prensa del Consejo de Ministros, miércoles, 17 de los corriente. Indicó que los Servicios de Prevención colectivas (CPS) está iniciando el Programa Nacional de eliminación de mosquitos este sábado 20 en la zona de Cul-de-Sac / Saunders.

El objetivo de este programa es eliminar los mosquitos que propagan las enfermedades; Chikungunya, dengue y Zika Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- A decision was taken at the shareholders meeting of the Central Bank on Thursday where the dividends from the Central Bank will be divided and St. Maarten will get its share of NAF.10M confirmed Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr. Minister Gibson said the decision was taken Thursday afternoon. However, he could not give an exact date as to when those monies will reach St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- On April, 25th 2016 the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of Telem Group, Mr. Eldert Louisa, had an aggressive and threatening outburst during a mediation meeting that was chaired by Dr. Gittens. During the outburst, the CTO Mr. Louisa made an unsubstantiated accusation against Mr. Evers. Present among others were the CFO Mrs. Etnel, the Human Recourses Manager Mrs. Shadira Lont and the Core Manager Mr. Elvis Lacroes.
On April 26, 2016, Mr. Evers made an official complaint against Mr Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Deputy leader of the UP party said in a newspaper article that the Ministry of VROMI paid out over NAF3M to cover the cost of the 19 fires that occurred on the landfill.
SMN News contacted the Minister of VROMI for a comment on the statements made by the deputy leader of the UP knowing that the statements (article) is misleading and has blatant lies.
Based on information SMN News obtained the contractor Robelto and Sons only submitted one bill to the department of VROMI which amounts to NAF Read more

Lee Says Up Assertion On New Hospital Misleading, Untruthful

~ Says SMMC meeting all expenditures ~

PHILIPSBURG--Misleading, untruthful and incompetent were some of the words used by Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA Emil Lee to debunk claims made by United People’s (UP) party about the new hospital that Lee has been pushing to see realised over the past months.

In a lengthy statement on Tuesday, UP Vice President Tatiana Arrindell made several claims about the new hospital including saying that SMMC currently loses money and constructing a larger facility will result in more losses Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Volunteers Beautify Two Public Schools

SOUTH REWARD--Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports (ECYS) Silveria Jacobs recently came up with an idea to get the staff of the ministry involved in the Education on the Move (EOM) campaign as volunteers.

Recognising that schools are in dire need of a facelift and while awaiting their “critical upgrade,” the Minister decided to tackle some minor repairs and maintenance in a phased manner via EOM.

The St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Mosquito Elimination Program Starts Saturday

PHILIPSBURG – The eradication of mosquito breeding sites is an ongoing effort Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor Emil Lee said during the Council of Ministers Press briefing, Wednesday, August 17, that the Collective Prevention Services (CPS) is initiating the National Mosquito Elimination Program on Saturday, August 20, in the Cul-de-Sac/Saunders area.

The aim of this program is to eliminate mosquitos that spread diseases; chikungunya, dengue, and Zika Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Na Board: More Like Upp Incompetence

The Board of the National Alliance has once again taken notice of the now somewhat childish claim (people know the truth) of several members of the UPP that this coalition is only finalizing projects that were initiated by the UPP-led coalition.

Though we understand the continuity of Government, we do not consider mentioning something on a stage during the 2014 or quietly mentioning it to a friend as initiating a project.

The truth is that when listening to both the leader and deputy leader of the UPP, one would think that the 2014-2015 term was the very first time that both men had been in Government Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Minister Lee Reacts On Hospital Article Of Up Party Vice President

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — We are in the election season. That much is obvious. Creating confusion or fear for political mileage now becomes the norm for some political parties.

A prime example of this is the recent opinion piece by the Vice President and political candidate of the UP party Tatiana Arrindell. She wrote a very incompetent and untruthful article, which was published in the Today newspaper about our new General Hospital.

I must say that this type of inappropriate behavior attacks a very large team of dedicated professionals, who have put in extremely long hours in order to make the hospital a project for the people of St Read more

Eom Gets Volunteers To Beautify 2 Public Schools

PHILIPSBURG – Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Silveria Jacobs recently came up with the idea to get the staff of the Ministry of Education, Culture Youth and Sports involved in the Education on the Move (EOM) campaign.

Recognizing that the schools are in dire need of a face-lift, and while awaiting the critical upgrade, the Minister decided to tackle the minor repairs and maintenance in a phased manner.

The St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Record-Breaking 19 Dump Fires For The Year So Far

PHILIPSBURG – In a reaction to accusations made by the contractor who manages the dump, hinting that the UP party is responsible for creating fires there, Member of Parliament (MP) Frankie Meyers stated: “It is unbelievable that when a National Alliance supporter/former candidate wins the bid for a multi-million dollar contract and manages to mess it up, the contractor still finds ways to accuse the UP party of setting the dump ablaze Read more

PHILIPSBURG:--- We are in the election season. That much is obvious. Creating confusion or fear for political mileage now becomes the norm for some political parties. A prime example of this is the recent opinion piece by the Vice President and political candidate of the UP party Tatiana Arrindell. She wrote a very incompetent and untruthful article which was published in the Today newspaper about our new General Hospital.
I must say that this type of inappropriate behavior, attacks a very large team of dedicated professionals who have put in extremely long hours in order to make the hospital a project for the people of St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Education Silveria Jacobs announced at the Council of Minister's press briefing on Wednesday that some students that wrote the FBE examinations and scored low grades are still having problems being placed into a school. One of the major hindrance to that is because of the four classrooms that at lacking at the St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr announced on Wednesday during the Council of Minister's press conference that the Council of Ministers on Tuesday amended the legislation for foundations. Minister Gibson said in 2015 the parliament of St. Maarten passed a law that has some undesirable consequences for foundations and as such all foundations has to file taxes and this placed a heavy burden on the foundations that have to pay for the services of accountants.
The Minister said that there are foundations that are performing community services while some are conducting businesses.
He said those foundations that are performing services for the community and also helps with social issues within the community Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

St. Maarten looking to collect the Central Bank dividends.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Finance Richard Gibson will be travelling to Curacao as early as today (Wednesday) to meet with the Minister of Finance to discuss the way forward regarding the President of the Central Bank of St. Maarten and Curacao Emsley Tromp.
Gibson told reporters that as reported in the news last week Tromp’s home was searched and he is currently under investigation and as such they believe that it would be wise for them to suspend him from his position until the investigation is completed Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Board of the National Alliance has once again taken notice of the now somewhat childish claim (people know the truth) of several members of the UPP that this coalition is only finalizing projects that were initiated by the UPP led coalition Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

El Primer Ministro Marlin Viajó A Juramentación Del Presidente Danilo Medina

SAN MARTEN / REPUBLICA DOMINICANA.- El Primer Ministro, William Marlin, viajó a la República Dominicana desde el domingo 14 para participar en la toma de posesión del Presidente Danilo Medina.

Marlin encabezó una delegación que además está integrada por Patricio Gumbs Jr., del Departamento de Relaciones Exteriores.

Una cena con altos funcionarios dominicanos la noche del lunes, abrió la ceremonia de dos días que culminó con la juramentación oficial del presidente Danilo Medina, quien asume su segundo mandato por un periodo de cuatro años 2016-2020 Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Sdm Reach Out To Cay Bay Community

CAY BAY – On Saturday, August 13, Benjamin Ortega, leader of the St. Maarten Development Movement (SDM), SDM candidates and Cay Bay residents, came out to Elder Drive to repair a basketball court that has been broken down for quite some time.

The idea came to mind during one of SDM’s ongoing district community meetings when SDM visited Cay Bay Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Up: New Hospital But Larger Debt For The Country

~ Businesses and taxpayers will pay in higher premiums and taxes ~

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — The new hospital has been announced. Politically – perfectly timed, but, let us look at some key areas of concern, United People’s (UP) Party Vice President and Candidate #13 Tatiana Arrindell said on Tuesday.

“The current St. Maarten Medical Center (SMMC) loses money and needs to be subsidized in the millions of dollars annually Read more

213 Voter Signatures Put Hope Officially In Race

HOPE leader Mercedes van der Waals-Wyatt give a thumbs up after getting word that her party surpassed the require number of signatures.

POND ISLAND--Helping Our People Excel (HOPE) has mustered 213 Read more

---

Candidates in this article: