Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten will have yet another coalition government after Friday's elections. National Alliance (four seats), United St. Maarten Party (two seats) and Democratic Party (two seats) signed a declaration of willingness before dawn today to work together to form a new government.
DP leader Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams told The Daily Herald about the declaration shortly after the signing took place at the DP election headquarters at Bute Hotel.
The short declaration states that the parties are willing to work together. The coalition's governing programme and division of government responsibilities will be announced in the coming days.
United People's (UP) party with its seven of the 15 Parliament seats appears to be heading to the opposition benches. The party is one seat short of a clear majority to be able to go into government without support from NA, DP or US Party.
The preliminary seat allocations show that UP has gained one seat since the September 2010 early Island Council Elections.
NA lost three seats from when it was the winner of the 2010 elections with seven seats. However, it could be said that NA is maintaining its four seats in Parliament. After its win of seven seats in 2010, three of its Members of Parliament went independent.
DP maintains its two seats in Parliament.
US Party is a new party on the scene, headed by former NA, now independent, MP Frans Richardson.
By law, only two residual seats can be awarded. Those seats went to UP and US Party. UP earned six seats outright and the seventh seat was the residual seat. US Party earned one seat outright and its second was the residual seat.
UP Member of Parliament Theo Heyliger received 6,156 votes while NA of MP William Marlin received 4,011. Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams' DP received 2,398, and independent MP Frans Richardson's US Party 1,636 votes.
The two other parties in the election were One St. Maarten Party (168 votes) and Social Reform Party (131 votes). Neither party received sufficient votes for a seat.
The quota was 967 votes per seat, compared to 917 votes in 2010. What is interesting is that SRP had just one candidate, businessman Jacinto Mock, who received all its votes. OSPP had nine candidates, yet came in only 37 votes more than SRP.
The total number of eligible voters for this election was 21,433 (not 21,457 as previously announced by the Central Voting Bureau). The change in the number is due to some 20 people being removed from the voter registry by court decision.
The number of valid votes was 14,500 votes (69 per cent), up from 14,009 (72 per cent) in 2010.
Invalid votes numbered 303 and blank votes were 79.
Total votes cast: 14,882.
UP gained some 1,220 votes since the 2010 elections.
NA lost about 2,260 votes since the last elections.
DP gained some 28 more votes this election than the last elections.
The names of the 15 parliamentarians will not be known until later today, Saturday, when the Central Voting Bureau completes the crunching of the numbers. Results will be announced via the media and posted on the government's website
www.sintmaartengov.org .
The preliminary results, announced by the Bureau around 4:00am Saturday, will be verified in a public meeting of the bureau in five days, based on Article 87 of the Electoral Ordinance.
Bureau Head Jason Rogers said the earlier release of the preliminary results had been hampered by several "factors." Those factors included polling stations opening one hour later than previous elections, an increase in the number of voters and more polling stations.
The teams at the 20 polling stations "worked diligently" to count the ballots. The teams were commended for "a job well done," Rogers said.
