UPP wins first round
in Territorial Election
MARIGOT--Louis-Constant Fleming‘s party Union Pour le Progrès (UPP) drew first blood in the first round of voting to decide the Collectivité’s new Territorial Council yesterday by collecting 2,829 votes, 592 more than second-place Rassemblement, Responsabilité, Réussite (RRR) headed by Alain Richardson with 2,237 votes.
However, UPP did not secure the required absolute majority of 50 per cent of the votes cast plus one vote, to represent 25 per cent of total inscribed voters, i.e. 3,882 votes, to win the election outright in the first round.
Falling well short of expectations was third-place Réussir Saint-Martin headed by Jean- Luc Hamlet with a disappointing 767 votes.
Dominique Riboud’s Alliance Pour Le COM finished in fourth place with 635 votes and Wendel Cocks’ Alliance Démocratique Pour St. Martin fifth with 544 votes.
The results are provisional and still have to be verified and confirmed by the official election committee in the Sous-Préfecture today.
The leading three parties are now eligible to head into the second round on July 8.
Although they did not win 10 per cent of the votes cast, the other two parties have the opportunity to form a new list between today and Tuesday midnight, the deadline for lists to be submitted again.
Despite the importance of such an election, voter turnout was not impressive. Of 15,519 eligible voters, just 7,195 voters cast ballots, of which 7,012 votes were deemed valid. There were 8,324 abstentions and 183 votes that were either blank or illegible.
As results from the 13 voting stations were being collated in the Mairie once voting had closed at 6:00pm, it was clear by 8:00pm that Union Pour le Progrès was winning on most counts.
Following the announcement of the results by the Mayor, Louis-Constant Fleming thanked his party supporters congregated outside the Mairie with a rousing address.
Fleming had told reporters earlier that it had not been easy for the population to decide between the candidates of five parties and that his party probably had lost votes when voters were persuaded to vote left during the Legislative Elections.
“But we expect next Sunday that all our supporters will come out to vote for us again, as well as those that didn’t, to give us the opportunity to get this Collectivité under way,” he said. “We have the team that has the experience, the integrity and competence.”
He said that if his party won the election, whatever decisions were made in terms of forming alliances with other parties would always be made in the best interests of St. Martin and not based on positions and titles.
Asked for his reaction to the first round of voting, RRR leader Alain Richardson said: “I must congratulate the population for the way they have conducted themselves in this election. I also want to thank the more than 2,000 voters that placed their confidence in our list and we ask for an even greater show of support next week. The turnout has not been at the level we would have liked considering the importance of this election, but it is understandable because of the elections that came before.”
Richardson said any discussions of alliances with other parties, if his party won the election, would be subject to those parties agreeing to RRR’s manifesto, for which the people voted.
“Governing of St. Martin must not fall into the wrong hands,” he said.
Jean-Luc Hamlet and Dominique Riboud were not present in the Mairie for the first round results.
