SXMElections.com

Seven New Political Parties Report For 2016 Elections

St. Maarten – An astonishing number of seven new political parties reported to the offices of the Electoral Council yesterday to submit their request to be registered for the February 9 elections. Among them is the St. Maarten Christian Party, led by Pastor Wycliffe Smith. On the other hand, the party of European Dutch residents did not show up, reportedly because they did not have enough time to prepare their documentation.

With the seven new parties – if they get all their formalities in order – the field for the elections will consist of eleven and possibly twelve parties Read more

Winners And Losers: Who Will Survive The Polls In February?

St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – February 9, 2016 is crunch day for politicians and those who aspire to become one. The parliamentary elections – for some mysterious reason perceived by some as ‘snap elections’, whatever that may be – will give voters the opportunity to speak their mind about the constitutional drama that concluded on Wednesday when the ministers of the Marcel Gumbs cabinet tendered their resignation and Governor Drs Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Today our young island nation is in a constitutional crisis because of the different interpretations of articles #33 and #59 of our constitution. The Council of Ministers has requested the opinions of various Dutch constitutional experts from the Hague. Our governor has taken the high road and requested three judges to provide an advice on this political impasse in five working days. We don’t know if the eight majority in the parliament of St. Maarten has acquired advice from any legal minds locally or from the Hague.
What bothers me is that time after time our elected officials especially those supporting the Council of Ministers have ridiculed the same Dutch for meddling in our internal affairs Read more

Schools reopen today for new academic year

~Alliance, OSPP encourage students~

PHILIPSBURG--Thousands of students, teachers and school staffers will be returning to school today, Monday, for the start of the new 2015-2016 academic year.

The roads are expected to be busy. In a back-to-school message National Alliance (NA) Deputy Leader Silveria Jacobs urged students to make school their priority and to do their utmost to learn something new daily as well as build character and practice respect Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---The 2015-2016 school year is just about to begin with our students reporting to classes today. After one month of vacation our students are all revered up to acquire some more knowledge as the saying goes only the prepared will inherit the future.
Recently, I had a conversation with a teacher and he stated that on an annual basis many students are not promoted; in some cases they don’t pass their final exams and often times they drop out of school after having repeated the same class more than once Read more

Practice Makes Perfect, My Message To Our Students, Tomorrows Leaders

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – The 2015-2016 school year is just about to begin with our students reporting to classes today.

After one month of vacation our students are all revered up to acquire some more knowledge as the saying goes only the prepared will inherit the future.

         Recently, I had a conversation with a teacher and he stated that on an annual basis many students are not promoted; in some cases they don’t pass their final exams and often times they drop out of school after having repeated the same class more than once Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- While reading the government program 2014 -2018 the section dealing with the adoption of a school program did catch my attention. It was very vague and I was hoping to acquire some more information on this adopt a school program. Both MP’s Marlin-Romeo and Lake came out strong defending this program and while I believe there is nothing wrong with such a program but are they planning to make this mandatory that the business community must adopt these schools. In one scenario MP Marlin-Romeo is talking about the tax breaks that many companies are receiving and that one of the condition to receive such a break is that they must adopt one of the public schools Read more

>Pointe Blanche:---- The OSPP welcomes the news that an investigation is to take place at the St. Maarten Harbour Holding N.V. It is better late than never, says Lenny F. Priest. What kept them so long in initiating this investigation, in particular since there has been so much rumor circulating in St. Maarten for the last decade over wrong doings and corruption within the harbour group of companies? It has been said that the harbour has been used as the cash cow for in particular one of the leading politicians in St Read more

>PHILIPSBURG;----  Just recently in one of the dailies our Minister of Education, Mrs. Rita Bourne-Gumbs stated that she will be contacting the banking industry to lower the interest rates for teachers interested in purchasing a property. We support whole heartedly this idea but would ask the Minister to add police officers and nurses as these are also noble professions that are earning on a daily basis this type of savings.
In a letter dated July 12, 2015 we have made this known to the Minister and have also recommended that she consider amending the present transfer tax legislature by exempting first time property buyers within these professions from paying this tax Read more

style="text-align: center;">Is it really the signing of the Integrity protocol why Minister Richardson must go!
I can imagine all of those voters of last election holding their head and bawling with shame knowing that they put this government in place. Don’t blame the politicians, blame yourself. You knew that if you put the same leaders back in office you could not have expected different results than what we are getting today.

Philipsburg:--- Many persons have not being paying much attention to the back and forth discussion regarding the establishment of an Integrity Chamber, especially not those ordinary citizens who are unemployed and those others who can’t make ends meet because of the high cost of living Read more

Electoral Council may soon consider penalty for party

PHILIPSBURG--The Electoral Council may soon be forced to consider imposing a financial penalty on one of the eight political parties registered for the 2014 Parliamentary Election that has failed to submit its annual report to the Council.

All registered political parties had up to February 1 to submit all their donation registries and annual financial reports to the Council as required under the National Ordinance on the Registration and Financing of Political Parties. To date, one party is in default of its legal obligations.

Electoral Council Chairman Attorney Bert Hoffman told The Daily Herald the Council would inform the party via letter that it must get its financial business "in order or face penalties." The Council still has to decide on the exact amount of the penalty.

Hoffman declined to give the name of the defaulting party, only saying they know who they are Read more

Parliament must do its job

Dear Editor,

Never have I witnessed such a degrading meeting of the people's business in parliament as that meeting held last week regarding the Checkmate Security contract at the St. Maarten Harbour. This meeting was called by the opposition because the people of St. Maarten wanted to know how such a contract could have been approved by the management and the supervisory board of directors of the Harbour Holding Group of Companies.

Those members of parliament supporting the government want the people to believe that because it is a local that owns Checkmate Security it is alright to pay them any amount of money and no questions should be asked Read more

The prepared will inherit the future!

Dear Editor,

We want to congratulate the St. Maarten Chamber of Commerce & Industry with the opening of the Business Centre. This Centre will provide many young entrepreneurs with the skills and confidence to go into business. Quite often we have people who would like to go into business, but don't have the necessary skills and confidence to venture into it.

We strongly believe that this Business Centre together with SBDF and USM will provide our potential entrepreneurs with the necessary tools and confidence to move forward with their dream of going into business Read more

Ospp Is Repeating Its' Call For An Urgent Operational Audit To Be Done At The Harbour Group Of Companies

POINTE BLANCHE, St. Maarten – We have been following with keen attention all the activities that have been taken place at the harbour group of companies over the last couple of years.

In a media report some time ago the CFT stated that the Harbour Group of Companies refused to open its books for the government of St. Maarten, the shareholder of the company.

Based on the 2013 financial statements acquired by one of the dailies many irregularities were mentioned in the article. Perhaps it is time for us to revisit that article again.

It was stated that the board members were paid approximately U.S Read more

OSPP repeats call for urgent operational audit at the Harbour Group of Companies

Dear Editor,

We have been following with keen attention all the activities that have been taking place at the Harbour Group of Companies over the last couple of years. In a media report some time ago the CFT stated that the Harbour Group of Companies refused to open its books for the government of St. Maarten, the shareholder of the company. Based on the 2013 financial statements acquired by one of the dailies, many irregularities were mentioned in the article. Perhaps it is time for us to revisit that article again Read more

OSPP IS REPEATING ITS’ CALL FOR AN URGENT OPERATIONAL AUDIT TO BE DONE AT THE HARBOUR GROUP OF COMPANIES.

>Pointe Blanche:--- We have been following with keen attention all the activities that have been taken place at the harbour group of companies over the last couple of years. In a media report some time ago the CFT stated that the Harbour Group of Companies refused to open its books for the government of St. Maarten, the shareholder of the company. Based on the 2013 financial statements acquired by one of the dailies many irregularities were mentioned in the article. Perhaps it is time for us to revisit that article again Read more

>GREATBAY:--- A full scale investigation into the harbour's relationship with Checkmate Security Services and the newly updated contract between the two entities is being called for by leader of the One St. Maarten People's Party Lenny Priest, who said that such an investigation must be conducted by the RST Detectives with the assistance of a leading Accounting firm that is not established in St. Maarten.

The OSPP leader has taken issue with reports of a US$2.2 million increase in a contract between the harbour and Checkmate Security services for the latter to provide security services at the harbour Read more

Ospp Wants Investigation Into Harbour And Checkmate Relationship

GREATBAY, St. Maarten - A full scale investigation into the harbour's relationship with Checkmate Security Services and the newly updated contract between the two entities is being called for by leader of the One St. Maarten People's Party Lenny Priest, who said that such an investigation must be conducted by the RST Detectives with the assistance of a leading Accounting firm that is not established in St. Maarten.

The OSPP leader has taken issue with reports of a US$2.2 million increase in a contract between the harbour and Checkmate Security services for the latter to provide security services at the harbour Read more

Establish the van Hugh Law

Dear Editor,

Our youth are crying for help and all their pleas are falling on deaf ears. A major crime is committed and unfortunately some youths are involved and the entire nation is in uproar. We must do something for our young people. They are going astray. Then the blame game starts, from the parents to the teachers and eventually the government, but at the end of the day nothing is done to help our young people. The 2015 budget was passed recently; what youth programmes were presented to the public?

Every year we have hundreds of young people completing our secondary schools and who cannot find employment Read more

style="text-align: center;">Our youth are crying for help and all their pleas are falling on deaf ears. A major crime is committed and unfortunately some youths are involved and the entire nation is in uproar. We must do something for your young people. They are going astray. Then the blame game starts, from the parents to the teachers and eventually the government. But at the end of the day nothing is done to help our young people. The 2015 budget was passed recently, what youth programs were presented to the public.

Dutch Quarter – Every year we have hundreds of young people completing our secondary schools and cannot find employment Read more

Establish The Van Hugh Law

Dutch Quarter, St. Maarten - Every year we have hundreds of young people completing our secondary schools and cannot find employment.

Put an ad in the newspapers seeking an administrative clerk and you would be surprised how many young people would apply for that job. It is unbelievable and yet those in office would want you to believe that the unemployment amongst young people is not at an all-time high.

If we should start an unemployment campaign registration at any given time in each district you would be surprised of the amount of young people that would register Read more

DP, CPA, OSPP still to submit donation list

~ Candidates urged to submit info by Feb. 13 ~

PHILIPSBURG--The Democratic Party (DP), Concordia Political Alliance (CPA) and One St. Maarten People Party (OSPP) have not yet submitted their donation registers for the August 29, 2014 Parliament Election to the Electoral Council Read more

Put our people to work & allow them to become business owners as well

Dear Editor,

The entire nation was glued to their TV and to their radios listening to the 2014 budget debate. Others depended on the print media to be informed about it. As you know, the budget is the most important policy document of any civilized government, it outlines the government projected income and expenses. But an integral part of the budget is also the governing programme. This programme indicates what the people can expect their government to do for them for the current year Read more

style="text-align: center;">Nice talk, passed some motions and many questions during the 2015 budget debate like all previous budget debates and then the entire government including parliament go into an induced coma. What has become with the motion that was passed just before the 2014 election to do a study on the minimum wage? Our elected officials act as if they have accomplished so much for the people after they handle the budgets year after year. Yet, unemployment especially amongst the youth remains at an all-time high with fewer of our people becoming business owners and crime becoming the order of the day.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The entire nation was glued to their TV and to their radios listening to the 2014 budget debate Read more