By NAN Contributor
News Americas, MARIGOT, Saint Martin, Tues. Mar. 21, 2017: Team Gibbs 2017, headed by Daniel Gibbs, a politician who was elected to the French National Assembly on June 17, 2012 representing the department of Saint-Barthelemy et Saint-Martin, emerged the victor in the first round voting of the Territorial Election in the Collectivite of Saint-Martin on Sunday, March 19, 2017.
Team Gibbs 2017 earned 4,077 of the votes cast in all 19 of the polling stations despite a low-voter –turnout in the election Sunday, which saw over 58 of eligible voters staying away from the polls.
For Team Gibbs to have won outright in the first round on Sunday they would have had to secure 51 percent of the votes cast as well as 25 percent of the total registered voters – meaning the Team would have had to secure just over 5,000 votes.
That means the election on who will lead the French Caribbean territory for the next five years must now move to a second round of voting, set for next Sunday, March 26, 2017.
Team Gibbs 2017 will now have to face off with the MJP headed by Louie Mussington, which came in second with 1,141 votes Sunday, and the MVP headed by Alain Richardson, which was third with 1,026 votes.
The other political parties that contested the election in the first round – New Direction, MOCSAM, Generation HOPE, Soualiga Grassroots Movement, Continuons Per Saint-Martin and En Marcheyers Le Progres –  have all been eliminated from the second round.
Mussington has said that his party is willing and open to negotiate to form a possible alliance to win next Sunday.
If Mussington and Richardson do not find common ground to form a coalition by next Sunday, then there will be three political parties contesting the second round of voting.
