Antillean and foreign
voters almost equal
PHILIPSBURG--Almost as many people born in a foreign country as those born in the Netherlands Antilles are eligible to vote during the Island Council election on Friday, April 20. Of the 19,151 people that can vote 9,614 were born in the Netherlands Antilles while the remaining 9,537 originate from countries all over the world.
Contrary to last year, the number of St. Maarten born voters was not released this year. For the 2006 Parliamentary election, there were 18,036 eligible voters of whom 4,783 were born in St. Maarten.
The largest group of people originating from a foreign country who can vote are the Domincanos. According to official figures released on Wednesday by the head of the Main Voting Bureau Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards, 1,461 persons from the Dominican Republic are eligible to vote. They are closely followed by persons of French origin 1,180, probably all born on French St. Maarten and Dutch nationals born in the Netherlands 1,170.
The figures show furthermore that there is also a large contingent of people from St. Kitts and Nevis in St. Maarten 1,035 who have naturalised and are eligible to vote. Also impressive is the number of voters originating from Haiti and Anguilla respectively 533 and 547 people.
Other large populations originating from foreign countries with a right to vote in St. Maarten are 299 people from the United States of America, 393 from Suriname, 281 from India, 228 from Guyana, 218 from Guadeloupe, 172 from St. Lucia, 154 from Jamaica, 121 from Trinidad & Tobago and 108 from China.
Only 10 persons born in Aruba are eligible to vote in St. Maarten. A total of 546 persons are new voters, most of them (368) are from the Netherlands Antilles.
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