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. There were political parties that did not submit the two decrees from the Electoral Council as stipulated by law, while the HOPE had to get a second day to acquire the signatures necessary to participate in the elections. The HOPE also had to make other corrections.
The party that had the biggest parade and turn on postulation day the USP, has the biggest hurdle because they had an error on the list they presented on postulation day, that error he said had the name of a candidate in the number 15 slot who did not provide the supporting documents, while there was another candidate whose declarations were submitted but his name did not appear on the list. On Friday the members of the voting bureau voted to remove the number 15th candidate from the USP list but they also decided not to change the numbering of the candidates. Rogers said the law is not clear on this and even though he did research outside of St. Maarten the decision of the voting bureau is to allow the other 22 candidates on the list presented on postulation day to keep their numbers. Already the leader of the USP indicated that he will challenge the decision of the Voting Bureau in court since the law also gives them 3 days in which they could appeal the decision of the Voting Bureau.
Click here to view more photos of Friday morning hearing by the Central Voting Bureau.
