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PHILIPSBURG:---- I must commend our parliamentarians for raising the budget debate in the Central Committee a notch higher this year. Compared to the debate on the 2016 Budget, Parliamentarians were better prepared to deal with details, to ask critical questions and to consequently carry out one of their very important functions, namely to control and monitor Government.
Parliamentarians were in their right to call out the NA-DP-USP-Lake-Matser caretaker Government and Ministers on the 2016 expenditures of the country Read more

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Lack Of Unity Apparent On St. Martin’S Day.

MARIGOT/PHILIPSBURG:----The annual St. Maarten/St. Martin day celebration was this year blighted by a marked lack of unity as the absence of members of the St. Maarten Executive Council was apparent at the usually joint commemoration activity on November 11th.

A decision was taken by the afore mentioned Executive Council not to attend the celebratory activities which were held this year on the French St. Martin. Both sides of the island alternate the hosting of activities to observe St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister Arrindell has stated that the tone and content, which consisted of innuendos, accusations, and condemnations made toward her in the editorial written by Mr. Hilbert Haar in which he stated that it appeared that she has been lying about the candidacy of Mr. Rolando Brison as the Interim Director of the Sint Maarten Tourism Authority Foundation (STA), and that contrary to what the Minister claimed in August, Mr Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:----- “The loss of human life and the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew in southwestern Haiti on October 4 are no longer among the hot news of the day. But we can still help to relieve the hardships that the storm piled on the people of our fellow Caribbean country,” said drs. Gracita Arrindell, leader of the People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA).

Arrindell, who personally responded to calls earlier this month from relief organizers to contribute hurricane relief goods for Haiti, said that she has faith in the St Read more

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Another Coalition Government For St. Maarten --- Stability Not Guaranteed With New Elections.

Alleged vote buying rampant on Monday.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The early elections called by the Governor St. Maarten, when it was requested by former Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, did not change anything for St. Maarten, instead it opens the door for more instability. Another very unfortunate situation the election called on September 26th created was vote buying by at least one particular political party who also even refused to comply with the laws laid down by the Minister of Justice Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- The anticipation as to which political party will take over power will come to an end on Monday night into early Tuesday morning as voters on St. Maarten will be heading to the polls to cast their votes to elect 15 members of parliament.
Contesting the election are nine political parties, namely:- DP, NA, UP, USP, OSPP, PPA, SDM, SMCP and HOPE.
SMN News will be bringing you the live updates as it begin on Monday morning from the house of parliament.
At around 11pm readers of this news site could watch the life announcement that will be made by the main voting bureau, as well as the interviews given by those that postulated themselves for this year’s parliamentary election Read more

The Grand Finale- Bigger And Better with an All-Star Panel.

Concordia:---- Recent guests on Fresh with the Y2X Crew, Jennifer Richardson da Silva of NA, May- Ling Chun of UP, Marinka Gumbs of DP, Angelina Williams of PPA, Anna Rabess-Richardson of USP, Mulrose Toulon of the St Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- I read with interest statements from UP Party MP Franklin Meyers that St. Maarten’s citizens have not benefited from the political changes since 10-10-10 and this statement raised my eyebrows. The people did not benefit because every proposal that was submitted by the OSPP to help the people-- make them business owners in their country, help them become home owners, put our young people to work, etc Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- It is election time again. September 26th is just around the corner. The question is, ARE YOU READY?
Youth 2 Xtreme (Y2X), the youth wing of Victorious Living Foundation, has the tools you need to be ready for the upcoming election. Y2X presents Election Series 2016 on their weekly radio program, FRESH, on Youth Radio 92.5 FM. During this election series, candidates from various political parties have the opportunity to debate on important topics, such as education and health as well as to prove to you, the people of Sint Maarten that they are the right choice for this year’s election.
Recent guests for this election series included: Chasen Williams of the Democratic Party (DP), Pastor Wycliffe Smith and Claude Peterson of the St Read more

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OSPP almost missed getting their color.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The One St. Maarten People’s Party (OSPP) Lenny Priest almost missed his party color since he showed up to the meeting on Friday morning just seconds before the Voting Bureau announced that they would follow the law and assign the political party one of the five remaining colors since no one from the OSPP did not attend the 9am meeting submit in writing the color they wanted for this year’s election Read more

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Jci Live Soualiga Global Organization.

PHILIPSBURG:--- JCI LIVE Soualiga known as a global leadership organization is once again holding its Voice of the Nation (VoN) Panel Discussion. This time the topic will be on Environmental Sustainability. All nine (9) registered Political Parties’ leaders have been invited to participate in this Assembly to be held on Saturday, September 3rd from 7pm at the University of St. Martin The parties are as follows NA, DP,US, UP,SMD,SMCP,PPA,HOPE AND OSSP Read more

Number 15th candidate on USP taken off the list.

PHILIPSBURG: --- The members of the voting bureau, chaired by Attorney at law Jason Rogers announced on Friday that a total of nine political parties will contest the September 26th parliamentary elections. All nine political parties that submitted their lists had to make corrections with the three-day time frame stipulated by law.
Rogers said that all the political parties had errors on their list, and they were given the time to make those corrections.
The nine political parties that will be on the ballots are UPP, HOPE, SMCP, OSPP, PPA, SDM, DP, USP and the NA.
In outlining the changes the chairman of the voting bureau said that the errors range from minors errors such addresses and date of births not correctly filled in, some parties that to place an amount of NAF 2000, in the name of voter but they did in the name of the party Read more

PHILIPSBURG: --- Of the five political parties that had to secure 146 signatures at the Census Office on Tuesday to qualify their list to contest the September 2016 Parliamentary elections. The St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) surpassed the amount by 1:00pm on Tuesday. The leader of the SMCP Wycliffe Smith told SMN News that at 1:30pm his party got 165 signatures and people were still in the line and some more on their way to endorse his party Read more

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Hope leader became emotional as she made a statement.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Of the nine political parties that submitted their list to the voting bureau on Monday, only three of them handed in a list with a full slate of 23 candidates. They are the United Peoples Party (UPP), United St. Maarten’s People Party (USP), and the National Alliance (NA).
St Read more

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Back And Forth Bickering Between Na And Up Over Gebe But No Solution In Sight.

PHILIPSBURG: --- It is the people of St. Maarten who are continuing to suffer while the heated debate over who is most responsible for the current Gebe woes continues between the National Alliance and the United People Party, notes leader of the One St. Maarten People Party Lenny Priest who opined that workable solutions are what the country needs and not “high school antics from elected officials.”
Priest was reacting to recent media statements on the situation at Gebe from the board of the NA who alleged ‘it seems every time that government or government owned companies needs to make a significant purchase some family or friend is involved in some way or the other’ and to statements by the UP alleging that it was the NA who stopped the purchase of the engine needed by Gebe.
“This constant back and forth between the largest political parties over what has happened at Gebe under their tenure with accusations of nepotism and the like levied against each other is in no way a solution to the problem Read more

Wyatte will be seeking justice and damages through the courts.

PHILIPSBURG: --- “Today it’s me, tomorrow could be you” that is how Elsidro Ricardo Wyatte puts it after he was released from police detention and gave an exclusive interview to SMN News.
Wyatte said on Monday he saw his photograph, and name on Facebook and 721 news stating he is wanted by Interpol. The father of one said he immediately called the police namely former head of Interpol St. Maarten Randolph Bloieman and informed him of what he saw on Facebook and 721 news Read more

Say It Loud! Racism In The Dutch Kingdom Is Unacceptable.

PHILIPSBURG:--- Earlier this week we read that a young man of 21 years was gunned down in the city of Schiedam in the Netherlands. The fact that he was dark complexioned, and ethno-racial profiling among Dutch police officers in the Netherlands is condoned as an unfortunate security measure. It have caused many activists throughout the Kingdom of the Netherlands to argue that this is one of the outcomes of a situation where, it has become politically suspect to say that racism within the Dutch Kingdom is unacceptable!
In this contribution, we seek to say the new politically suspect as loud as possible: Dutch racism is unacceptable! “Sticks and stones may break our bones, but words can never hurt us.” Whoever wholeheartedly believes that this saying holds all the time, and in every occasion, is either lying to themselves or not part of the human species Read more

PHILIPSBURG:--- The landfill (dump) in Philipsburg is on fire again and the perils with the new garbage collection contracts in general have only added to the frustration.
Some might feel that this is open political season and we could now point fingers at the persons who were in charge of areas like Public Works etc. for many years, and under whose responsibility this matter fell.
We could use the lack of visible action by those persons as political ammunition and start to "shoot" at these persons who over the years and for mainly selfish reasons have stalled, turned back, reversed or whatever the case might have been, any plan that had to do with arriving at a solution for the Philipsburg landfill.
However, this blame game will not get us any closer to a solution at this time.
The people of St Read more

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On the occasion of the first CBCS Central Banking Conference Caribbean Central Banking since the Financial Crisis

Sonesta Maho Beach Resort, Sint Maarten
March 31st, 2016

Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening.

It gives me great pleasure to join you this evening at the welcome dinner for the first central banking conference of the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten.

Firstly, on behalf of the government of Sint Maarten, allow me to extend a warm welcome to all the speakers and participants who have travelled to Sint Maarten for this conference Read more

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Prosecution Demanded Prison Time For The Buncampers And Co-Defendants.

decided to drop money laundering charge due to prosecutor’s misconduct.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The prosecution requested that the Buncamper’s namely Maria Buncamper Molanus and Claudius Buncamper be sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, six of which suspended and a three year probation be placed on the couple. As for notary Gijsbertha the prosecution demanded 15 months prison sentence, five of which suspended also with a three year probation.
For Ivan Haverthong the prosecution demanded 12 months imprisonment, four of which suspended along with a three year probation Read more

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“I want to make clear that there is a government in place, all I wanted is support to approve the 2016 draft budget”

PHILIPSBURG:--- Prime Minister William Marlin dispelled the allegations and rumors and even statements made during a radio program on Friday that he went tried to form a government on Thursday with the United Peoples Party Read more

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PHILIPSBURG:--- Nature Foundation divers placed a white marker Buoy with information warning swimmers away from an area on Simpson Bay beach close to Karakter beach bar. Many swimmers were injured, some seriously, when they cut themselves on an underwater object right in the surf zone as they were bathing in the area. The Nature Foundation was contacted by Member of Parliament the Honorable Maurice Lake as well as the owners of Karakter Beach Bar and residents of Simpson Bay regarding the incident Read more

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