Unbiased look at the Sint Maarten Elections
SABA:--- The Central Voting Bureau of Saba, chaired by Island Governor Jonathan Johnson, during a session on Thursday, March 23 established the final results of the March 15 Island Council and Electoral College elections.
The Central Voting Bureau members checked and signed the reports (processen verbaal) of the Voting Bureau Public Entity Saba and the reports of the polling stations. No inaccuracies were found. The Central Voting Bureau first handled the results of the elections for the Electoral College. A total of 496 valid votes were cast and 25 blank votes and 23 invalid votes.
The WIPM candidates were available for the election of the Electoral College for the First Chamber. In total, 496 valid votes were cast for the Electoral College. Of these votes, 177 were cast for Bruce Zagers, 71 for Rolando Wilson, 25 for Eviton Heyliger, 100 for Elsa Peterson, 42 for Vito Charles, 35 for Carl Buncamper, and 46 for Shaun Johnson.
A total of 1,040 valid votes were cast for the Island Council. There were seven blank votes and five invalid votes. The Windward Islands Peoples Movement (WIPM) received 617 votes and obtained three seats. The Party for Progress, Equality, and Prosperity (PEP) received 324 votes in total and obtained two seats.
Number one candidate on the WIPM slate Bruce Zagers received 191 votes, the number two candidate Rolando Wilson 84 votes, the number three candidate Eviton Heyliger 122 votes, number four Elsa Peterson 80 votes, number five Vito Charles 42 votes, number six Carl Buncamper 26 votes and number seven Shaun Johnson 72 votes.
Number one candidate on the PEP slate, Saskia Matthew received 137 personal votes, number two candidate Hemmie van Xanten 26 votes, number three Ronald Holm 11, number four Julio Every 33, number five Chesney Thielman 21 and number six Justin Simmons 96. The blank list, list number four, received 95 votes, of which 89 went to Dave Levenstone and six to Charles Hassell. Enrico Cuchie Klaber of the Saba Caring People Party received 4 votes.
Island Council members
The five provisional Island Council members who have been elected are Bruce Zagers, Rolando Wilson, and Eviton Heyliger, all of the WIPM, and Saskia Matthew and Hemmie van Xanten, both of the PEP.
The current Island Council will meet on Tuesday, March 28 to check the credentials of the incoming Island Council members and the members of the Electoral College. The installation of the new Island Council and Electoral College will take place during a meeting the following day, on Wednesday, March 29. At this meeting, the five new Island Council members and the five members of the Electoral College will be sworn in.
Proxies
Chairman of the Central Voting Bureau Johnson mentioned that during these elections, there were more proxies, namely 265 for the Island Council elections, which is 25.19% of the total number of votes. In the previous Island Council elections, four years ago, this was lower at 22.54%. In the Netherlands, 8 to 12% is a customary percentage for the number of proxies. There were 38 proxies for the Electoral College elections on Saba.
Authorities received some signals about possible recruiting. These signals have been passed on to the Public Prosecutors Office. Approaching voters to hand over their voting cards is punishable by law. Island Governor Johnson encouraged voters who have been approached to hand over their voting cards to contact the public prosecutor. This can be done by sending an email to parket.bes@OMcarib.org or by calling +5997 178626.
