MARIGOT – The enthusiasm for the territorial elections on the French side has never been impressive. In 2012, just 52.1 percent of the 17,892 voters went to the polls and yesterday the numbers looked even worse halfway through the day. When the pools closed at 6 p.m. those numbers became a reality: only 42.4 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. Just 8,601 voters cast a vote, meaning that the other 11,675 voters had better things to do. At 4 p.m., just 35 percent of the 20,276 voters (7,103 total) had bothered to cast their vote. With that score,…
Author: The Publisher
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Poverty, bad education and youth unemployment; those ingredients feed the breeding ground for drugs and gang related gun violence in Curacao. This observation, made by NOS-correspondent Dick Drayer after the shooting of four young men in Curacao on Saturday, is not even an eye opener. It is very much stating the obvious. Everybody knows that these are the elements that poison societies – not only in Curacao, but certainly also in St. Maarten and elsewhere. One would expect therefore that decision makers know this too and that they come up with adequate measures to turn the tide. For now, that…
The United St. Maarten party stands by its arrested MP Chanel Brownbill, the board says in a press statement. That is on a certain level commendable – you don’t drop your friends when they get into trouble. But on another level the statement confirms that not all is well with integrity in politics. In many other countries, politicians who get in trouble with the law do not wait until their guilt or innocence has been established. They step down before the sun goes down on the same day. The main reason they would give is that they are unable to…
GREAT BAY – The board of the United St. Maarten (US) party on Thursday said it stands by and supports its party member and Member of Parliament Chanel Brownbill (see photo) in the current ongoing investigation. Though the situation is one to be concerned about, the board also cautions against a rush to judgment as MP Brownbill still has rights under the law. “In such time we tend to forget how families are also affected, so we also stand in support of them in these troubling times. There is the need to allow the judicial process to take its full…
GREAT BAY – Minister Emil Lee (Labor) made clear once more yesterday that the government is serious about improving compliance in the business sector. Last week, the minister accompanied an inter-ministerial control team during a day-long operation that began at 8 a.m. and finished at 10 p.m. “It was a long day, the minister said, “but it was worth it.” Among the preliminary findings of these controls a few things stand out. “Many employees said that they did not have an ID on them,” Lee said. “Let me make clear that anyone over the age of twelve is obliged to…
GREAT BAY – The government has appointed former vice Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson (see photo) as a change manager at the Postal Services. “The Postal services inherited a staff of 34 from the Netherlands Antilles and it does not need all those people to operate,” Prime Minister William Marlin said yesterday. “It is doomed to bankruptcy if it does not generate enough funds to cover the costs of its operations.” Richardson is expected to make recommendations about the downsizing of the staff at the Postal Services. Many of them have 30 years or more in government…
GREAT BAY – With a turnout of 90.4 percent, the 167 eligible voters in St. Maarten showed a keen interest in the Dutch parliamentary elections yesterday. Of the 151 valid votes cast, the majority went to D66 (42; 36.5 percent) followed by the VVD with 31 (26.9 percent), GreenLeft (21; 13.9 percent) and, rather surprisingly, the PvdA with 18 (11.9 percent). Most likely new cabinet: VVD-D66-CDA-PvdA All other parties won fewer than ten votes: CDA 9, Socialist Party 7, PVV 6, Party for animals and Article 1 4, Christian Union 3, Forum for Democracy 2 and SGP, 50Plus, Geen Peil…
Dutch voters seem to have come to their senses by not letting Geert Wilders‘ populist PVV party even come close to the winner of yesterday’s elections. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD emerged the clear winner and long before the final results it was clear that he will continue as the country’s leader. The most likely coalition for the next government is a combination of the VVD with the CDA, D66 and the PvdA. As things stood last night at press time, this combination will hold 80 seats in Parliament – a comfortable majority for Dutch standards. Whatever that new coalition…
GREAT BAY – Law enforcement is having a field day this week with the arrest of Unites St. Maarten party MP Chanel Brownbill (see photo) and police officer Akeem A. in connection with the Emerald-investigation and immigration employee Brunella M.B. as the umpteenth suspect in the Ostrich-case. A third person, identified as S.W. has also been arrested as a suspect in the Emerald-probe. Add to that the fatal shooting on Arch Road on Tuesday evening that killed Nino Thewet and left another victim seriously injured and it becomes clear that the men and women in blue are working overtime right…
GREAT BAY — Due to a shortage of our newsprint paper, the Wednesday, March 15th, 2017, edition of the TODAY newspaper is available online today. Click here to download and read the complete version digitally in PDF format. DOWNLOAD COMPLETE DIGITAL VERSION HERE
