SXMElections.com

Dear Editor,

The Daily Herald of Friday Jan 2nd quoted an undisclosed source stating that a number of people on Statia have suspicions about the role of the Post Office with regard to the distribution of the voting cards for last referendum.

The claim is that the majority of Post Office staff are DP party members and the DP was openly against this referendum. This statement insinuates that because of their perceived political affiliation the Post Office workers will-fully have obstructed the referendum. This is a serious allegation and demands an in-depth investigation about the process of the distribution of the voting cards. The good name of loyal Post Office workers has been discredited by these allegations, while those who have brought these suspicions in the open remain scot-free as they choose to remain anonymous.

Let it be clear, the Democratic Party at all times maintained its position and is also now still of the opinion that this past referendum was ill prepared, rushed and at the wrong time. Procedures and regulations have been trampled on; the referendum ordinance and the threshold has been changed (lowered) four times; advices by the referendum committee on the use of experts and the date of the referendum were systematically ignored by the island council; there was most of the time no functioning referendum committee. An official referendum booklet full with mistakes was given out by government in which no attempt was made to objectively describe the various options, while the author went out of his way to describe the positive sides of option Nr.3. All of this was done to bow to the pressure of the people and organizations like Brighter Path and Pro Statia, favoring option Nr.3 and who insisted this referendum needed to be held before the end of 2014.

These are the same groups who are now crying foul and blame everyone but themselves.

Reading the rest of the article it becomes clear that Brighter Path and other pro-autonomy organizations are leaving no measure unused in order to reach their goal, which is moving away at all cost from the status Statia is presently enjoying. In the time leading to the referendum these organizations went door to door, like in a political campaign, not shunning tactics to mislead our people about the real meaning of the various options and even resorting to soliciting proxy votes. The Democratic Party did not take part in this political campaign other than objectively describing the options and warning the people about the consequence their choice may have.

Now that their option has clearly lost they try to discredit the process and the people who were involved in the organization of the referendum. The DP had no role in the entire process of the referendum. This process was controlled and orchestrated by the ruling parties in the island council and the executive council. The DP did not encourage nor discourage Statia people to cast their vote. The DP has left this up to the judgment of the Statia people. The DP also did not influence anyone who had a role to play in the referendum process to do or not to do his or her duty.

The result of the referendum is that 55 per cent of the eligible voters have chosen to stay at home. The outcome of the referendum also means that from the 2,546 eligible voters a majority of almost 72per cent have not voted for option Nr.3 to become an autonomous territory within the Dutch Kingdom. This result simply means that option Nr. 3 has lost and is off the table.

Koos Sneek

President DP Statia