~ Ballots can now be printed ~
PHILIPSBURG--The order in which political parties will appear on the ballots for the January 9, 2020, snap parliamentary election was decided on during a public session of the Central Voting Bureau on Thursday. Parties were also officially assigned their colours.
United Democrats (UD) will be the first party listed on the ballot and that party selected the colour black.
United People’s (UP) party will appear as #2 on the ballot and it selected the colour green.
United St. Maarten Party (US Party) will be #3 on the ballot and selected cyan.
Party for Progress (PFP) will be #4 on the list and selected the colour gold.
People’s Progressive Alliance (PPA) will be #5 on the ballot and opted for orange.
St. Maarten Christian Party (SMCP) will be #6 on the ballot and selected the colour brown.
National Alliance (NA) will be the #7 party on the ballot and that party chose the colour white.
Each party was allowed to select a number from a container, and the number selected became the number that party will appear on the ballot. Following the assigning of numbers on the ballots, each party was allowed to state their colour of preference. All the colours selected by each party were granted and there were no conflicts in colours desired. Available colours were red, yellow, blue, green, brown, cyan, black, white, purple, magenta, orange, grey, beige and gold.
Now that the numbering on the ballots has been decided and colours assigned, the ballots can be printed, Central Voting Bureau Chairperson Jason Rogers said during the session.
A total of 112 candidates on the slates of the seven political parties will contest the snap parliamentary election. This is 19 more candidates than the 93 who contested the election in 2018, and one more political party than the six that contested then. A total of 29 of the 112 candidates are women and 83 are men. Of the 112 candidates, 12 are Members of Parliament (MPs) who are seeking re-election, and three are ministers.
There are 23,130 eligible voters for the upcoming election.
