A coalition party led by two former top officials has won local government polls in the Dutch part of the hurricane-hit Caribbean island of Saint Martin, according to results published Tuesday.
The island held fresh polls following a political crisis triggered by a row with the Netherlands over aid in the wake of Hurricane Irma which blasted through the territory in September last year.
Led by ex-prime minister Sarah Wescot-Williams and former deputy prime minister Theo Heyliger, the United Democrats took seven seats in the 15-seat parliament of Sint-Maarten, as it is known in Dutch, after all votes were counted.
The United Democrat party is an amalgamation of Wescot-Williams' Democratic Party and that of veteran politician Heyliger of the United People's Party. Together it received 5,748 votes with a 62 percent turnout.
The National Alliance of deposed prime minister William Marlin came second with five seats, Sint-Maarten's government announced on its website.
The territory was plunged into crisis late last year when the local government fell after then prime minister Marlin refused Dutch conditions for reconstruction aid.
The Dutch government had promised 550 million euros ($670 million) in reconstruction aid, but insisted that a special "integrity" body be set up to monitor the spending, amid fears of rampant corruption.
Hurricane Irma last year left four people dead on the Dutch side of the island and 11 in the French part when it barrelled through the Caribbean, and dealt a major blow to the tourism-dependent local economy.
Before the vote, some of the 20,000 registered voters said they were looking for change to try to restore their lives after Irma hit the island, with Sint-Maarten's capital Philipsburg still bearing the scars six months later.
