SXMElections.com

Omar Jones Shot Dead At Pointe Blanche Prison, Prosecutor And Police Tightlipped. (Updated)

POINTE BLANCHE:--- An early morning shootout at the Pointe Blanche has left one prisoner dead according to information reaching SMN News states that Omar Jones a convicted prisoner in the Vesuvius
case was shot to death inside the Pointe Blanche house of detention. Jones was serving a sentence of 29 years, nine months. The spokesman for the Public Prosecutor's Office Gino Bernadina confirmed that a shooting at the Pointe Blanche Prison has left a prisoner dead. Bernadina further stated that the prosecutors were at the Prison conducting an investigation.
Shortly after the deadly shoot-out, the police A-Team was dispatched to the Prison to assist with the investigation. The victim Omar Jones is the son of OSPP candidate Elton Jones whose older son Amador Jones was also assassinated.

Minister of Justice gives briefing on prison shooting
The Honorable Minister of Justice Edson Kirindongo expressed his concern in a press release about the unfortunate fatal shooting of an inmate at the Point Blanche Prison, which took place on Wednesday, August 31st, 2016 at approximately 09.00 a.m Read more

Priest On No Actpol For Police: “We Cannot Play Games Or Cut Corners With Our Security”

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – “If we are serious about tackling crime then we must give our police officers the correct tools they need to do the jobs they have been employed to do,” leader of the OSPP Lenny Priest said following reports that the local police force is still operating without its ACTPOL information software.

Reports in The Daily Herald of August 23rd indicate that the local police force has been operating without the ACTPOL software since June 7th and that this has generated some international concerns since the ACTPOL is a shared information system between Curacao, St Read more

Von Panel Discussion With Party Leaders

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 9 registered political parties’ leaders have been invited to participate in this Assembly to be held on Saturday, September 3, from 7:00pm at the University of St. Martin (USM).

The parties are: NA, DP, USP, UPP, SDM, SMCP, PPA, HOPE AND OSPP Read more

On Central Bank Alleged Irregularities: Priest Urges Cooler Heads To Prevail

PHILIPSBURG – Amidst news that the Director of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten is under investigation and may face criminal charges over irregularities at the Central Bank and allegations of funds from Ennia Insurances being invested, leaving policy holders uncovered, leader of the One St. Maarten People’s Party (OSPP) Lenny Priest urged for cooler heads to prevail.

He reiterated his earlier call that the Parliament of St Read more

Priest Urges Cooler Heads To Prevail; Reiterates Call For Meeting.

GREATBAY:--- Amidst news that the director of the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten is under investigation and may face criminal charges over irregularities at the Central Bank and allegations of funds from Ennia Insurances being invested leaving policy holders uncovered, leader of the OSPP Lenny Priest urges cooler heads to prevail.
He reiterated his earlier call that the parliament of St Read more

Priest Reacts To Homes Transfer: “This Is A Clear Indication Of Na Lead Government Lack Of A Housing Vision”

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - “While all members of Parliament and the Council of Ministers own their homes, they are hell bent that our ordinary people cannot and should not own theirs,” said leader of the One St. Maarten People Party—OSPP-- Lenny Priest on the heels of news that some emergency homes and land have been transferred to the St. Maarten Housing Development Foundation.

The OSPP has for some time been calling on the government to sell these homes to the tenants at a significantly reduced rate as was done for the owners of the government homes at South Reward that were sold in 1994 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

Hope Gets A Second Chance For Signatures

POND ISLAND--Helping Our People Excel (HOPE) may yet get on the ballot for the September 26 Parliamentary Elections.

  The party, headed by former radio personality Mercedes van der Waals-Wyatt, has been given three days, starting Tuesday, to get 80 more signatures of endorsement for its slate of three-candidates.

  Van der Waals-Wyatt told The Daily Herald she was informed on Monday of the additional time by the Main Voting Bureau Read more

Priest Challenge Students To “Act Responsibly”

PHILIPSBURG—As St. Maarten students and teachers go back to school today, students are being challenged to “act responsibly” and remember they are ambassadors of their country everyday even when at home. This challenge was issued by leader of the One St. Maarten People Party Lenny Priest who also urges parents to remember that despite the moans and groans they may encounter from their children in getting them ready and from themselves as they deal with the road congestion that is part and parcel of the school run, that it is their civic duty as parents to educate their children.

“School is the place where children and indeed adults build their confidence, learn the value of teamwork and where knowledge is imparted that will set students on the trajectory of their lives Read more

Priest Challenge Students To “Act Responsibly”

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - As St. Maarten students and teachers go back to school today, students are being challenged to “act responsibly” and remember they are ambassadors of their country everyday even when at home.

This challenge was issued by leader of the One St. Maarten People Party Lenny Priest who also urges parents to remember that despite the moans and groans they may encounter from their children in getting them ready and from themselves as they deal with the road congestion that is part and parcel of the school run, that it is their civic duty as parents to educate their children.

“School is the place where children and indeed adults build their confidence, learn the value of teamwork and where knowledge is imparted that will set students on the trajectory of their lives Read more

Hope Hoping For Another Chance To Convince Voters, Thankful For The Support Given Tuesday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The five political parties, who needed to have their list endorsed by 146 eligible voters, were out at 9am Tuesday at the census office seeking to attract voters.

The parties seeking list endorsement were the PPA, SDM, OSPP, HOPE and the SMCP Read more

Smcp – Sdm – Ppa And Ospp Obtain More Than 146 Endorsement Signatures

~ HOPE Party did not reach the 146 signature on Tuesday ~

PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – On Monday August 8th, the representatives to the Central Voting Bureau of nine (9) political parties have submitted the list of candidates of their respective political parties.

As per article 23, paragraph 1 Electoral Ordinance, the lists would need to be endorsed on Tuesday, August 9th 2016, between 09.00hrs and 16.00hrs with an amount of signatures equal to 1% of the valid votes casted during the last Parliamentary Election Read more

Smcp Gets Needed Signatures To Be On Ballot.

PPA has 75

SDM 77

OSPP 76

HOPE 38

Read more

POND ISLAND - On August 8th 2016, the representatives to the Central Voting Bureau of nine (9) political parties have submitted the list of candidates of their respective political parties. As per article 23, paragraph 1 Electoral Ordinance, the lists would need to be endorsed on August 9th 2016, between 09.00hrs and 16.00hrs with an amount of signatures equal to 1% of the valid votes casted during the last Parliamentary Election.

The requisite amount of signature is 146. Those parties that have obtained 1 or more seats during the previous Parliamentary Election are exempted from being endorsed, as per paragraph 4 of the aforementioned article.

Below, please find the result of today’s endorsement:

Political PartyEndorsement  UPExemptedHOPE66SMCP221OSPP150PPA165SDM191DPExemptedUS PartyExemptedNAExempted

On Friday, August 12th 2016, the Central Voting Bureau will meet to examine the lists that were submitted and shall also take note of the endorsement list of each political party that needed to be endorsed (Article 28, paragraph 1 Electoral Ordinance) 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

Nine Political Parties Postulate For September Elections

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – On Monday, August 8th postulation day, nine (9) political parties postulated to contest the September 26th parliamentary election.

The parties are the

United People’s Party (UP) 23, Helping our People Excel (HOPE) 3, St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) 9, One St Read more

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

The endorsement of lists in 2014, when each window was designated for a particular party. This will not occur for this election. On Tuesday, a voter can go to any window to endorse any list. (File photo)

~ Civil Registry closed for regular service Tues. ~

PHILIPSBURG--Voters heading to the Civil Registry Department on Tuesday to endorse the lists of the five new political parties will not have to select a specific window to do so any longer. They will be able to go to any window to sign for the party of their choice, giving their voting or support preference anonymity Read more