THE BOTTOM – The new party on Saba, which took part in the elections for the first time, the Party for Equalty and Progress (PEP) has achieved a good result of a total of two seats.

Those seats are not truly ‘new’, because a seat in the current island council was already held by council member Hemmie van Xanten, who is also part of the PEP. The result of PEP is a setback for the Windward Island People Movement (WIPM), which went down from 4 to 3 seats. This means that it still retains the absolute majority in the island council of Saba.

In the previous elections, the WIPM won all seats in the island council. The orange party lost 1 when Hemmie van Xanten declared himself independent from the party. It was however not Van Xanten who turned out the biggest vote-getter for the PEP, but party leader Saskia Mattheew, with a total of 126 personal votes. Mattheew turned out to be the second biggest vote-getter on Saba, behind Bruce Zagers with a total of 199 personal votes.

UPM

Dave Levenstone’s party, the United People’s Party, again was unable to secure a seat in these elections.