Marigot: --- Several associations and unions on the French side of the island have contacted this media house expressing their concerns on the election of the representative for the Social, Economic and Environmental Council (CESE) which was held on June 1. These results were supposed to be made public some three weeks ago but to date it has not been publicized.
Last year the same thing happened when the election was held. It took a registered letter from certain persons in the community before the results were made available by the Prefet Delegue Dominique LaCroix.The concerns were raised since the last time the election was held and the results was never made public and it was the MOCSAM who discovered that Laurent Fuentes did not win the election. Fuentes was given the seat to represent St. Martin after the former President of the Collectivity Louis Constant Fleming requested that he be placed in the position to represent St. Martin in the State. Fleming had said Fuentes would be holding the position for one year.
However, on June 3rd, two days after the closure of the election the President of the CESE has decided to prolong the mandate of the sitting councilor Laurent Fuentes to another year (until September 2010) until the Constitutional reform which is being discussed and voted.
The arguments made by the President of the CESE seems to be more invalid than anything else since he did this to accommodate Laurent Fuentes alone, and not the entire council that has 233 members. Moreover, there is no guarantee the constitutional reform will be voted in July 2009 or if it would take another year before the motion is tabled and voted upon.
The associations that participated in the voting of their representative is angry saying that elections are democratic and if the State had no intention of respecting the outcome of the election then they should not have held any. What is more disgusting and upsetting is that these associations that were selected to participate in the voting process only learnt of the outcome via a local website and one of the daily newspapers, while the State representative on St. Martin has remained mute on the matter. The associations said LaCroix did not even show the candidate Mr. Rene Arnell any respect by even informing him of the outcome.
In an invited comment Arnell said he is still waiting on the results. Arnell further explained that based on the information he has from the associations he knows he won the election but the official figures he does not have. “I already went to the Sous Prefecture to see if I can meet with the Prefet and to obtain the results but I could not see the State representative. I will make another try this week and if I don’t get the results then I would go public” Arnell said.
Another concern is that Laurent Fuentes has been missing in action since he was appointed to the seat. “No one sees or hears from Fuentes and he is not doing anything that is to the benefit of St. Martin and its people.”
The election which closed off on June 1 2009 one had at least three candidates, which are Laurent Fuentes, Rene Arnell and Duffutel. It is already understood that Arnell won the election again but the result is yet to be released by the State representative on St. Martin.
Sources say the State does not necessarily have to respect the outcome of the election since it was not an election instead it was a consultation and the State has the last word.
SMN News was not able to get an official comment from the Sous Prefecture since we are on a weekend. Efforts made to contact the President of the Social Economic Council Mr. Georges Gumbs also proved futile up to press time.
