SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of Public Health, Social Development & Labor Emil Lee, would like to encourage parents to take their kids for free eye testing and glasses at the white & Yellow cross located in St. Johns Estate.
In support of the Volunteer Optometric Service to Humanity (VOSH),the Rotary club of St.Maarten organized an eye examination program to support their initiative on Sint Maarten which Is to provide free eye exams and eyeglasses to those who cannot afford it Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

St. Maarten Carnival Director Mike Granger Looks Back

SCDF-Director Mike Granger. Photo contributed.

“We are not a bunch of know-it-alls”

St. Maarten News – “Much of the growth and success of Carnival over the last five years can be attributed to the fact that young, local entrepreneurs were given an opportunity to be part of Carnivals in the various facets of the festival,” says Mike Granger, director of the St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation SCDF. “Across the board, key aspects of Carnival are now managed by young adults.”

With the conclusion of Carnival 2016, the public has been heaping praise on the SCDF for its steadfast stance on putting local artists and entrepreneurs first in Carnival, Granger notes Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Letter To Editor: Thank You, St. Maarteners

“Is that your ninth notebook already Teacher? Teacher Jodi, you write too much!” That is the comment of one of the 6th graders when I pull out my notebook. Over the past nine months he has kept trace of my work and has explained to others who I am and what I do. “She is learning from us about living on St. Maarten, how we learn and how we teach. And she writes down all the crazy things we say. This is her ninth book!”

This 6th grader is one of the future citizens of St. Maarten, who has been teaching me about living together on this beautiful island Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Mp Marlin-Romeo Wants To Know Why Tourism Trade Fair Smart Postponed

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – A letter was sent to the president of Parliament on Monday, April 26th, 2016 by the Member of Parliament Leona Marlin-Romeo querying the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (Ministry TEATT), as stakeholder and contributor on the postponement of the SMART annual trade show.

The trade show attracts major wholesalers whose jobs are to sell the destination Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG – A letter was sent to the president of Parliament on Monday, April 26th, 2016 by the Member of Parliament Leona Marlin-Romeo querying the Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication (Ministry TEATT), as stakeholder and contributor on the postponement of the SMART annual trade show.

The trade show attracts major wholesalers whose jobs are to sell the destination Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Education Minister Jacobs Congratulates Oranje School On Book Week

PHILIPSBURG – Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Silveria Jacobs congratulated Oranje School on its 29th annual Book Week.

Pupils of the Oranje School showed their newly gained knowledge of this year’s theme: “The Body System” all week through readings, demonstrations, songs, dances and various arts and crafts.

The Book Week culminated with a parade that started at the Oranje School, led by two youth drum bands, progressed down Front Street, made its way in front of the Government Administration Building, where several classes displayed their dances, songs and posters before turning on to Back Street and back to Oranje School.

Minister Jacobs said that this is a great example of “Education on the Move” initiated by a school, which she is proud to highlight Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- Honorable Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Silveria Jacobs congratulates Oranje School on its 29th annual book-week. Pupils of the Oranje School showed their newly gained knowledge of this year’s theme ‘The Body System” all week through readings, demonstrations, songs, dances and various arts and crafts.
The book-week culminated with a parade that started at the Oranje School, led by two youth drum bands, progressed down Frontstreet, made its way in front the Government Administration Building, where several classes displayed their dances, songs and posters before turning back towards Backstreet and back to Oranje School.
Minister Jacobs expressed that this is a great example of Education on the Move initiated by a school which she is proud to highlight and hereby encourages all schools to take the initiative to show correlation between learning and the curriculum while demonstrating learning in creative ways Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Soccer Association Presents Report To Minister Of Sports

PHILIPSBURG – On Tuesday, April 19, The St. Maarten Soccer Association (SMSA), represented by President Sudesh Singh, along with SMSA representative Sandro Garcia, presented Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Silveria Jacobs with a certificate of gratitude, and a report of the 2016 CFU Futsal Qualifier Tournament in Cuba.

SMSA received an official invitation to participate in the Men’s CFU Futsal Qualifier in November 2015 Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Mp Tamara Leonard Still Awaiting Answers From Gibson

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten (April 21, 2016) – United People’s (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Tamara Leonard has again written to Finance Minister Richard Gibson Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:---  Every budget over the last ten years and beyond shows that education consumes the greatest part of it. But instead of things getting better our education product is lagging far behind. We have been reading about so many problems within our public educational system that it makes us hold our head and bawl. All indications are that our private schools are being better managed. We are therefore; somewhat surprised that after so many years of talking about it no decision has been made to date to privatize public education Read more

Up And Na, Shadowboxing About Education On The Move!

Every budget over the last ten years and beyond shows that education consumes the greatest part of it. But instead of things getting better, our education product is lagging far behind. We have been reading about so many problems within our public educational system that it makes us hold our head and bawl.

All indications are that our private schools are being better managed. We are therefore, somewhat surprised that after so many years of talking about it, no decision has been made to date to privatize public education.

Our largest secondary school, if media reports are correct, is planning to establish an English curriculum because we are not having sufficient students stream into the Dutch system at that school 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

---

Candidates in this article:

Happy St. Maarten Carnival To All

St. Maarten News – The Minister of Culture Silveria Jacobs extends to the entire community of St. Maarten as well as to our visitors a happy and safe Carnival in a brief press statement.

“48 Years of evolving Carnival celebrations have kept segments of our culture alive and it is the hope of the Minister that even more core cultural aspects receive the recognition they deserve during this our largest cultural celebration of the year and years to come.

All stakeholders in Carnival, from the SCDF, the promoters and sponsors, booth-holders, the participants, the spectators and law enforcement are key to the success of this three week event Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:---  The One St. Maarten People Party has taken note of the statements of the Minister of Finance, the Honourable Mr. Richard Gibson to impose a 6% tax on goods purchased on line and his concerns about a 30% reduction of business reported by the business community. As a political party we are also very concerned when we hear about such a reduction in business because most of the time this also results in the loss of jobs, a very scarce commodity now in St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Health Insurance On St. Maarten For Less Than 3 Dollars A Day

From left: Jim Rosen (executive advisor, cabinet VSA), Eric Ellis (executive manager of claims Dept. Nagico), Ash Hodge (taxi driver), Ellen Benjamin (Manager Medical Dept. Nagico) and Minister of Public Health Emil Lee. Photo contributed

St. Maarten News – One of the Ministry of VSA’s top priorities is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable and quality healthcare Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Remembering What We Share In Common: A Past In The Making.

PHILIPSBURG:--- What past do St. Martiners (Sint Maarteners & Saint Martinoise) long for, when they talk about the good old days? St. Martiners have been described as those Born Here and those Born to be Here. This non- ethnic and non-racial definition, brilliantly introduced by the honourable governor of the island, Drs. Eugene Holiday, is meant to be both accommodating and normative. St Martiners are those who put the island first. They are patriots, persons who love the island. Dr. Louis Jeffry who can trace back his ancestry to the time of slavery, and Father Charles, the island’s revered Catholic priest, who was born on Saint Lucia, equally qualify.

I found this definition rather inclusive until I spoke to my long-time friend, Ruford Serrant, who I dare say was one of the first St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

St. Maarten / St. Martin Parties Sign Sea Border Demarcation Treaty

Préfète-Déléguée Anne Laubies and Prime Minister William Marlin sign the treaty. Photo contributed

Quadripartite meeting

St. Maarten News – The Government of Sint Maarten hosted the third annual Quadripartite Meeting last Wednesday. The meeting was formulated in 2014 as a forum for representatives of the governments of the French Republic (led by the Ambassador for Regional Cooperation for the Antilles-Guyana Veronique Bertile), the Kingdom of the Netherlands (led by Director of the Western Hemisphere Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Joost Reintjes), Saint-Martin (led by President of the Collectivity Aline Hanson), and Sint Maarten (led by Prime Minister William Marlin) to discuss issues of mutual interest.

The agenda of the 50-delegate strong meeting touched on issues related to military cooperation between both the French and Dutch state on the island and the police cooperation treaty, which will regulate the manner in which armed forces exercise their authority in instances of transnational policing Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Health Insurance For Uninsured Less Than $3 A Day

PHILIPSBURG – One of the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor VSA’s top priorities is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable and quality healthcare. Having affordable health insurance is a critical part of having access to healthcare. Besides being a barrier to accessing healthcare, being uninsured can also place huge financial strains on the family.

Unfortunately, during the time in office, Minister of Health Emil Lee had already signed off for a few uninsured persons to be evacuated for emergency medical reasons Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- One of the Ministry of VSA’s top priorities is to ensure that everyone has access to affordable and quality healthcare. Having affordable health insurance is a critical part of having access to healthcare. Besides being a barrier to accessing healthcare, being uninsured can also place huge financial strains on the family.

Unfortunately, during the time in office, Minister Lee has already signed off for quite a few uninsured people to be evacuated for emergency medical reasons Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Prosecutors Demanded Lifetime Sentence For Kilo Gotti And 25 Years For Second Accomplice.

Philipsburg:--- The prosecutor that handled the Menam murder case (Gamali Benjamin) asked the court to punish the main suspect DAMISSE
Ridge aka Kilo Gotti, while they asked the judge to sentence the second suspect LEON
Jovanny to 25 years imprisonment. The prosecution took the time to give the court detal explanation as to how Officer Gamali Benjamin life was taken when he responded to armed robbery at the Ore Diamante Jewelry store in Philipsburg.
The complete presentation to the court by the prosecution follows.
On Thursday the trial will continue with the other two suspects.

“Vigilant and committed to serve and protect all, in a decisive and professional manner” Read more

St. Maarten Hosts 3Rd Annual Quadripartite Meeting

PHILIPSBURG– On Wednesday, April 6, the Government of St. Maarten hosted the 3rd annual quadripartite meeting.

The meeting was formulated in 2014 as a forum for representatives of the governments of The French Republic (led by Ambassador for Regional Cooperation for the Antilles-Guyana Veronique Bertile), The Kingdom of the Netherlands (led by Director of the Western Hemisphere Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Joost Reintjes), St. Martin (led by President of the Collectivity Aline Hanson), and St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

PHILIPSBURG:--- On Wednesday, 6th April, the Government of Sint Maarten hosted the 3rd Annual Quadripartite Meeting. The meeting was formulated in 2014 as a forum for representatives of the governments of The French Republic (led by the Ambassador for Regional Cooperation for the Antilles-Guyana Mrs. Veronique Bertile), The Kingdom of the Netherlands (led by Director of the Western Hemisphere Department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. Joost Reintjes), Saint-Martin (led by President of the Collectivity Mrs Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

Minister Lee Visits St. Maarten Patients During Trip To Colombia

PHILIPSBURG – As part of Health Minister Emil Lee’s self-financed visit to Coomeva and medical facilities in Colombia, he made a point of visiting as many patients as possible from St. Maarten who were in the cities of Cali, Bogota and Medellin at the time.

As part of the Minister’s hands-on approach, he felt that it was important to get direct feedback from patients as to the quality of service and of the medical treatment being received by St Read more

---

Candidates in this article:

St. Maarten Civil Servants Move To New Building On July 1

St. Maarten News – The signing of the necessary documents to initiate the start of the completion of the new Government Building situated on Pond Island is certainly a step in the right direction and according to Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr, such a move will save the Government 300,000 guilders per month.

The signing of the agreement between the contractors, Windward Electric Company, Windward Roads, Lievense CSO and the SZV was a big moment in the history of St Maarten; it was the first time that all the ministers in the government converged in the still to be completed facility.

The Interim Director of SZV, Glen Carty was the first to address the gathering Read more

---

Candidates in this article: