DP presents 2007 slate,
shooting for seven seats
Will campaign on ‘experience’ theme ~
PHILIPSBURG--The Democratic Party presented its slate of 19 candidates for the April 20 Island Council elections last night and party leader Sarah Wescot-Williams announced that the party would be shooting for at least seven of the eleven seats.
“So when I hear the National Alliance (NA) saying that they will get 11 seats I ask myself: where are they going to get the votes from?” Wescot-Williams told a full house of DP members and supporters at the John Larmonie Centre.
The list includes 12 “new” faces, but no major surprises, with Commissioner Franklin Meyers the only currently serving DP member of the Island Council not included.
Only seven of the candidates on the DP lists for both the 2003 Island Council elections and the 2006 Parliamentary elections are on the 2007 list. They are Wescot-Williams, Roy Marlin, Louie Laveist, Theo Heyliger, Maria Buncamper-Molanus, Gregory Richardson, and R.L.L. “Major” Brown. On this year’s slate Richardson occupies spot number 9 and Brown is number 15.
The recurrent message from almost all of the candidates in their presentations as they were introduced one by one in front of the jam-packed John Larmonie Centre last night was that the DP had learned from the past and wouldn’t make the same mistake it had made during last year’s Parliamentary elections that it lost to the National Alliance. This election it will be hard work, they said.
The main DP campaign slogan will be “Experience that can’t be matched.” With this slogan DP wants to convince the people of St. Maarten that only DP has the experience to govern St. Maarten now on the verge of obtaining country status within the Dutch Kingdom.
Roy Marlin, number two on the list, said he felt very proud being part of DP after taking notice how many people had attended yesterday’s meeting and the enthusiasm they displayed. “I was flabbergasted with the mass turnout of the people. I have never seen so many people. Not even when we won big-time back in 1999,” he told The Daily Herald after the meeting.
Louie Laveist, number three on the list, reminded National Alliance (NA) of promises it had made to the people. “They promised the people a pension of at least NAf. 1,000. Where is that pension? Have you seen it?” he asked. He also said he had heard the NA leader in a radio programme talking about lowering the wage tax and increasing the turnover tax. “I have never heard such nonsense,” Laveist said.
Wescot-Williams, reacting to Laveist’s remarks, added that if that was what William had said, DP would ask NA during the whole campaign when it would lower the wage tax, because NA was part of the Central Government coalition and taxes were legislated on federal level.
Theo Heyliger swore before all members that this time he wouldn’t make the same mistake as one year ago. “We have to learn from our mistakes. In 2006 we stayed home and did not campaign. We have learned from this. Now we will go door by door, because that’s what the DP party is about: touching the people.”
Maria Buncamper-Molanus took the “hard work” one step further. “Don’t go and knock on the door of people you know are DP supporters, but knock on the door of those you know aren’t. And if I have to, I’ll go and knock on William Marlin’s and Frans Richardson’s door to convince them that the DP way is the right way for St. Maarten.”
Number six on the list had to be convinced by the party members to run for the election. “Run Erno run,” he said he had been told. He presented himself yesterday saying that each candidate on the DP list should do his or her best to obtain a minimum of 100 votes.
Franklin Meyers is not running in this election. He said though that he would always remain supporting the DP. Meyers has been chosen to be the moderator for all the DP public meetings leading up to election on April 20.
All DP members and supporters are expected to be at John Larmonie Centre on Thursday, March 1, at 2:00pm. From there they will march along Front Street toward the Government Administration building. The main Voting Bureau is situated in Dr. A.C. Wathey Legislative Hall in the Government Administration Building at Clem Labega Square. The lists of candidates can be delivered from 9:00am to 4:00pm.
St Maarten vacation rental
