PHILIPSBURG — Former politician Akeem Arrindell did not only lose his seat in parliament during the August 2024 elections, he has now also lost the right to work as a police officer for a period of six years, lost his passive voting rights for the same period of time and has to repay the salary he received during his tenure in parliament – a whopping 75,372 guilders ($42,107) or go to prison for one year if he does not come up with the money.
All this appears from a ruling the court of appeals handed down recently. Arrindell’s tainted history goes back to the elections of January 2024. He took his seat in parliament but five months later he was arrested for elections-fraud: buying votes to secure a job that paid a salary most people in St. Maarten can only dream of.
For these shenanigans, the Court in First Instance sentenced Arrindell later to a 1-year conditional prison sentence with three years of probation and 90 hours of community service.
While election fraud usually carries an unconditional prison sentence, the court showed some lenience by taking into account Arrindell’s personal circumstances, the social impact of his conviction and a looming forfeiture measure.
The Court in First Instance rejected the forfeiture measure, but the appeals court found a way to hit Arrindell firmly in his wallet. The judges reasoned that this measure could not be imposed for buying votes but instead it used the oath parliamentarians swear before taking their seat.
Article 56 of the constitution states, among other things, that a candidate has not given or promised anything to people in exchange for their vote. They also swear allegiance to the king and to the constitution.
Because Arrindell had already a conviction for buying votes to his name, the appeals court concluded that he had lied when he took the oath. And without that lie, he would never have been able to take his seat in parliament.
Therefore, the salary he received was an illegally obtained financial benefit and the court now ruled that he must pay that money back.
In the vote buying case, the appeals court upheld the verdicts against Natascha Francisca, the girlfriend of another co-defendant: Robert Morgan.
Francisca offered family members $100 if they voted for Arrindell and Morgan offered up to $200 to others. Francisca was sentenced to 180 hours of community service with 90 hours suspended and Morgan received a 12-month prison sentence with 4 months suspended. The appeals court lowered the verdict against Morgan to a 6-month suspended prison sentence with three years of probation and 90 hours of community service.
Arrindell was the number 3 candidate for the United People’s party (UP) for the August 19, 2024, elections, but he was arrested on August 1, suspected of membership of a criminal organization set up for buying votes during the earlier elections in January of that year. In the August-elections, Arrindell did not win enough votes to secure a seat.
First time around, during the elections in 2020, Arrindell won 229 votes; during the tainted January 2024 elections he won 353 votes but after his arrest in August of that year, the number dropped to just 89 – and he lost his seat.
###
Related articles:
Opinion piece: An unhealthy practice
Dutch column: “Zo sarcastisch als het mot, zo helpt me onze God.”
Former MP Arrindell sent to prison for vote buying
MP Arrindell might be prosecuted for vote-buying
###
ADVERTISEMENT
