The Court of First In­stance on Wednesday acquitted a Saba woman accused of brib­ing three people to vote for her uncle in the 2023 Island Council election.

Alicia Wilson (38) was also found not guilty of pressuring an­other 10 to sign away their ballots via the proxy system, which al­lows someone to vote on another person’s behalf. It is illegal to sys­tematically target people for their proxy under Dutch electoral law.

Although she avoided convic­tion on electoral fraud charges, Wilson was found guilty of an un­related crime involving financial misconduct.

The judge considered it proven that she had defrauded Qredits, a financial institution that offers loans to entrepreneurs and small businesses, out of a little more than US $100,000.

In 2019, Alicia applied for start­up loans for herself, a friend and three close relatives. The planned businesses never materialised. Instead, most of the money went to finance the construction of her apartment.

For this, she has received 120 hours of community service, a suspended two-month prison sen­tence and two years’ probation.

It also emerged during Wednesday’s trial that Alicia has entered into an arrange­ment with Qredits to repay the fraudulent loans.

Alicia denied all the charges before the judge, emphasising that she did not “break any rules” while campaigning for her uncle. The prosecutor considered Alicia guilty on all counts, and had asked the judge for 240 hours of community service and a suspended six-month prison sentence. The vote-buying investi­gation into Alicia began less than a month after the Island Council election on March 15, 2023, in which the governing Windward Islands People’s Move­ment (WIPM) secured its seventh consecutive term in office.

Alicia’s uncle, long-time WIPM member Rolando Wilson, was elected to the Island Council but was soon replaced as Commis­sioner by Eviton Heyliger, who had garnered more votes. WIPM has an infor­mal policy of choosing its two-highest vote-getters to become Commissioners.

As many as possible

“Alicia was out there to collect as many votes as possible for her uncle,” the prosecutor said during Wednesday’s trial in the courthouse in Windward-side. “This is fine within the limits of the law, but the defendant crossed those bounds.”

According to Dutch elec­toral law, the initiative to give a proxy must come from a voter, who must also freely choose a representa­tive to cast their ballot for them. The prosecutor told the court that these rules were made to protect citi­zens in small communities such as Saba, where it is easy for people to be tar­getted and coerced into surrendering their right to vote.

The prosecutor argued that this had happened in the case of two young men, who told police that Alicia had pushed them to sign away their ballots.

Rolando arranged finan­cial support for the pair when he was commissioner and Alicia allegedly told one of them that “it would only be fair if you vote for my uncle” in return.

A search of Alicia’s phone uncovered photos of bal­lots and identity cards, as well as a list of names, the prosecutor said. One of the photos had someone signing their ballot, as one would when giving a proxy.

Investigators also found WhatsApp messages be­tween Alicia and her uncle, warning him to “secure your votes” and telling him to “work on” jobs, permits and donations for various people. With one person, Alicia told her uncle that they were “heading in the orange [WIPM’s party co­lour — Ed.] direction” and that she had already “asked for their vote.”

Dutch electoral law stipu­lates that a voter can cast a maximum of only two prox­ies.

When questioned by po­lice, three people who cast the proxies of residents linked to photos on Ali­cia’s phone said they had received the ballots from Alicia herself. The prosecu­tor argued that this showed that Alicia had arranged for a network of associates to implement her voting fraud scheme.

The prosecutor argued that Alicia had known she was doing something ille­gal because many messages on her phone had been de­leted.

“The defendant has left citizens in Saba with a feel­ing that elections are not fair,” the prosecutor said.

Insufficient evidence

In his verdict, the judge ruled that there was insuf­ficient evidence to convict Alicia of vote-buying and electoral fraud, siding with defence lawyer Zylena Bary.

Of the 10 allegedly pres­sured to hand over a proxy to Alicia, the judge pointed out that two of them had told the police that they had approached Alicia out of their own free will, which is allowed under electoral law.

Another six had never even been interviewed by police. This means it can­not be determined who ini­tiated the exchange, or to whom the proxy was given, the judge said.

This only left the two young men. Although the judge ruled that their testi­mony is credible, only two instances does not prove Alicia’s coercive actions were “systematic” or “or­ganised”, a requirement for conviction.

One person testified to be­ing offered a job, although conceding to investigators that they believed the offer was a “political lie”. How­ever, the judge dismissed this testimony as unreliable because the person had switched between stories during their interview.

Another person, who was mentioned in WhatsApp chats between Alicia and her uncle regarding a gov­ernment position, denied being offered a job.

Although they applied to a vacancy only a week before the election — with the ap­plication being sent directly to Rolando’s e-mail official address and not Human Resources — there were e­mail exchanges that showed they had been applying for government jobs for months before, supporting Alicia’s claim that she had only been following up with her uncle.

Additionally, the What­sApp chats were too “un­clear” to prove vote-buying, the judge ruled.

As for the photos on Ali­cia’s phone, the woman told the court that they origi­nated from a family group chat. Lawyer Bary pointed out that her client, who cur­rently lives in St. Maarten, could not have taken the photos because she only re­turned to Saba a mere two days before the election.

The Daily Herald.