Laveist gives support
to National Alliance
~ DP loses majority ~
PHILIPSBURG--Island Councilman/Commissioner Louie Laveist has withdrawn his support from the Democratic Party (DP) and says he will back opposition party National Alliance (NA) 100 per cent to form a new government.
This move was announced Sunday, less than 48 hours after Laveist, who is awaiting court trial on forgery charges, had declared himself an independent member of the Island Council and a non-active member of the Executive Council.
This means DP, headed by Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams, has lost the one-seat majority it had in the Island Council as a result of the April 2007 elections. Each party now has five seats. With Laveist’s support, NA will be able to rely on six votes (majority support) in the Island Council, should party leader William Marlin choose to take up his offer.
Laveist told The Daily Herald Sunday that he had not yet contacted Marlin directly to convey his support, because all of his (Laveist’s) e-mail addresses and other contact information he had stored in his computer had been destroyed when his office was searched by the federal detectives in October. In the interim, he was communicating with Marlin via the media and letters were being drafted to be sent to Marlin and Wescot-Williams.
Laveist said he had a responsibility to the people who had supported and elected him not to let the island end up in an ungoverned state. “My decision is to throw my support behind the National Alliance. I need time to work out the legal issues confronting me at this point, so I have no desire to hold administrative office in whatever new structure is reached in a new government.”
Neither Marlin nor Wescot-Williams could be reached Sunday for comment on the matter.
After receiving Laveist’s letters last week Friday, Wescot-Williams had said she would be seeking clarification from Laveist about what exactly was his position. She had noted then that while Laveist had said he would be sitting as an “independent” member in the Island Council, he had not said that he would not be supporting the Democratic Party.
Laveist, who is under investigation for forgery, was stripped of his portfolios of Labour, Public Transportation, Youth and Culture after DP had decided that, in keeping with party policy, any of its members of either the Executive or Island Council under investigation should resign.
He was in pre-trial detention in the Pointe Blanche prison at the time, after being arrested by Federal Detectives on October 22, and his portfolios have been distributed to the other four members of the Island Council.
Asked why he had decided to withdraw his support from the DP with which he started his political career, Laveist said, “After reconstructing how this unfortunate plot came together and finding out who the conspirators were, I could no longer support this government. I have also concluded that I can no longer form or continue to be a member of the Democratic Party. One thing is for sure: this government can no longer count on my support.”
While refusing to give the names of the “conspirators” who had “plotted” to get him out of office, Laveist said he knew for certain who they were and that their motive was purely political. “In time, at the right time, the people of St. Maarten will be made aware of exactly what has happened, why it happened and who made it happen. I have this information and I have entrusted this information in a safe place, because you never know what can happen.”
He continued: “Despite all I have found out, I am not angry. I am not bitter. I have just become a little wiser. I have stated before and I will state it again: I have no intention of seeking retaliation against anyone. ‘Vengeance is mine,’ saith the Lord.”
Laveist, a former member of the Antillean Parliament, is currently serving his third term as a member of the Island Council. He was the third highest DP vote-getter in the April 20, 2007, Island Council elections, amassing 683 votes behind Wescot-Williams (2,188 votes) and Theo Heyliger (1,841) votes.
