PHILIPSBURG:--- Minister of VROMI Maurice Lake and MP Roy Marlin met head on Wednesday night when the Minister of VROMI decided to send a civil servant from VROMI to stop Marlin from digging holes and putting down footings for his political posters on Wednesday night in the vicinity of the Central Bank on Pondfill. Minister Lake claimed that the Democratic Party was using holes that were dug by the UP Party.
SMN News learnt of the actions taken by Minister Lake on Thursday. In an invited comment MP Marlin said that he was with an inspector from VROMI who is a member of the Democratic Party when the husband of one of the UP candidates came to stop them from doing what they were doing. MP Marlin said the civil servant told him he got instructions from Minister Lake to issue a work-stop for the holes and footings he was placing alongside the road for the political posters he intended to put up on Saturday after postulation day.
MP Marlin said that Minister Lake even called the Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson who also called him to inquire what he was doing on Wednesday night. He said the Minister of VROMI even called the police to stop him but he managed to carry out his work because he was not doing anything that was illegal or against the law.
MP Marlin sent an email exchange he had with the Minister on Thursday night in which he carbon copied the Prime Minister and Minister of Justice. Below is the email exchange between Minister Lake and MP Roy Marlin.
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 23:52:29 -0400
Subject: Political posters
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Dear Minister Maurice Lake. Tonight you displayed a very childlike behaviour when my person and a group of workers were busy placing frames in the ground on the Pondfill road for placement of political signs on Friday July 11th. First by calling Mr. Edelmiro Jansen to stop the work, subsequently getting the Minister of Justice involved. You stated that the DP party was using holes dug by the UP party. Let me inform you that I have video footage of the area where worked was been carried out and there were no holes in the ground freshly dug. You subsequently called Mr. Ellis from the public works department and demanded a report in the morning on the incident. Needless to say that the son of Mr. Ellis is a candidate on the DP list. If at any time any member of the Democratic Party or any person associated with the Democratic Party that their job or functioning has changed or being made difficult by your person because of your vengeance you have changed the rules of the political game that have been in effect for the past at the least 20 years, whereby any one is free to express their support for any political party that they choose. This matter will not be taken lightly by the Democratic Party. You are hereby requested to refrain from such actions and speak the truth and nothing else but the truth as you know full well that there were no holes dug in the locations were we planted the stakes for our posters. The flimsy alibi that they should be removed does not hold no water as the UP party has had a political billboard displayed on the Bushroad for the past two to three months. The UP party has practically kept a public meeting on Tuesday evening and no one complained. Let's keep the election clean and discuss the issues. I thank you for your understanding in this very important matter.
Roy Marlin
Democratic Party faction leader.
Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone
Response from Minister Maurice Lake.
Dear MP Marlin. Please get your facts straight before sending such an email. Let's just show political maturity, abide by the rules and keep this election clean and focus on the issues.
We need to get back to basics instead of igniting confusion between the UP Party and DP Party.
Success to everyone in the upcoming elections.
Sincerely,
Maurice Lake