Doran winner, Smith biggest loser in parliamentary elections
PHILIPSBURG – Interim Minister of Justice Jurendy Doran, candidate number 5 on the list of the National Alliance leads the top-ten of vote getters in Thursday’s parliamentary elections. Doran improved his score from the 2018 elections by 157 percent, from 278 to 843 votes.
Behind Doran are two other NA-candidates: interim Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs whose voter support dropped from 896 in 2018 to 753 this time around and MP Christophe Emmanuel, who improved from 571 to 687 votes.
UP-candidate number four Grisha Heyliger-Marten rode on the wings of her husband Theo to fourth place with 656 votes. Party for Progress leader Melissa Gumbs came out of nowhere in fifth position with an impressive 559 votes, ahead of UP-leader Rolando Brison (488).
Behind Brison are Omar Ottley (UP) with 418 votes and NA stalwart William Marlin (390). UD-leader Sarah Wescot-Williams completes the top-ten with 353 votes.
Who were the biggest losers in these elections? St. Maarten Christian Party leader Wycliffe Smith tops that list in terms of lost votes, dropping 314 votes (54.4 percent) from 577 in 2018 to 263. Next are two party leaders: Sarah Wescot-Williams (UD) with a loss of 213 votes (from 566 to 353 – 37.6 percent) and Silveria Jacobs (NA) who won 753 votes, 143 (16 percent) below her 2018 score of 896.
Next on the list are two Members of Parliament that lost their seats. Ship jumper Luc Mercelina lost 120 votes (from 368 to 248 – 32.6 percent) and USp-leader Frans Richardson got his marching orders due to a loss of 103 votes (from 315 to 212 – 32.7 percent).
Former Minister of Finance Perry Geerlings won 174 votes, 84 below his 2018 score of 258, a loss of 32.6 percent.
National Alliance’s William Marlin sits in seventh place; his voter support dropped by 12.4 percent from 445 to 390. Right behind Marlin is former MP Claude Peterson (SMCP) who won 81 votes compared to the 136 he scored in 2018; a drop of 40.4 percent.
Number nine is another parliamentarian who lost his seat: Chanel Brownbill. In 2018, as a candidate for the United Democrats, he won 270 votes; this time, as a candidate for the UP he won 224 votes – a loss of 46 (17 percent).
UP-candidate Rhoda Arrindell completes this top-ten. In 2018 she won 147 votes for the United Democrats, this time the counter stopped at 116 – a loss of 31 (21.1 percent).
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File photos of Doran’s campaign and supporters in 2018….
