Top winners may not shape government

| 25/05/2017

(CNS Elections): When the final count was in Wednesday night, the winners in terms of numbers did not necessarily reflect the final tally of groupings and they may not find themselves on the government benches. McKeeva Bush secured the most votes of any candidate by far. 605 people voted for him in West Bay West, where he won the seat with over 71% of the vote in the second lowest turnout of all 19 constituencies. Moses Kirkconnell secured the largest percentage of any candidate when he won the CBWLC seat with 302 votes, which translated into over 76% of voters in that constituency, where the turnout was also lower than the national average.

Tara Rivers (WBS) received the second largest number of votes; 534 people voted for her, which represented almost 54% of the vote in a turnout that matched the national average. Kenneth Bryan got 495 votes, or just shy of 52%, when he unseated former finance minister Marco Archer, who also polled one of the largest number of votes (460) in a district where the turnout was almost 77%, exceeding the national average.

In Red Bay Alden McLaughlin received 478 votes, the forth largest count, which translated to over 56% of the vote in that constituency, where around 72% of eligible voters went to the polls.

When it came to the losers, nine of the 61 candidates that took part lost their $1,000 candidate deposit after failing to secure the required 10% of the vote. Alric Lindsay, Catherine Tyson and Paul Hurlston all lost their deposits in George Town South, where five candidates were running but where the battle was focused entirely on the PPM and CDP candidates. Dennie Warren’s bid for office to try to diversify the local economy with a cannabis sector did not appear to resonate with the people. He polled just over 9%, losing his deposit in GTW.

The only PPM candidate to lose a deposit was Daphne Orrett, who polled just 8% of the vote against McKeeva Bush and Paul Rivers in West Bay West. In West Bay South, Burns Rankin and Laura Young both got just over 5% of the vote in a race that focussed on Independent incumbent Tara Rivers and her CDP, rival John Jefferson.

Matthew Leslie the ‘wooden spoon’ candidate in the 2013 election was not the very last this time around. He improved his percentage of the vote to 6.8% from his 1.5% share in the last election.

This time the wooden spoon honour went to Arnold Berry, who got just 41 votes or 3.6% of the poll. Berry was competing in Bodden Town East, which turned out to be a race between CDP candidate Robbert Bodden and the eventual winner, Dwayne “John-John” Seymour, a non-aligned Independent candidate. But Berry got both the lowest number of votes of any candidate as well as the smallest percentage of the votes in a race where the Independents toppled their third Cabinet minister of the night, when Osbourne Bodden was pushed into an unexpected third place.

Finally, the women were also losers on the night despite increasing the female contingency in the parliament by one. Even though 15 of the candidates, almost 25%, were women, just three of them were returned to office, representing less than 16% of the Legislative Assembly.

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Category: Election News

Comments (24)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    New title: Top whiners may not shape government

  2. Anonymous says:

    It appears that the CNS headline was wrong. The top winners have indeed shaped the new government. Score one for the voters.

  3. Anonymous says:

    Now the noise makers can disappear for another 3+ years again.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Dr. T really got screwed. Feel so sorry for him……..Not!!!!!!!!!!

  5. Anonymous says:

    McKeeva Bush: Speaker of the House
    Bernie Bush: Deputy Speaker of the House, Minister for Sports and Culture
    Alden McLaughlin: Premier and Minister for Home Affairs
    Tara Rivers: Minister for Education, Gender Affairs and Employment
    Joey Hew: Minister for Health and Environment
    Roy McTaggart: Minister for Finance, Economics and Financial Services
    Julianna O’Conner Connolly: Minister for Planning, Housing and Infrastructure
    Moses Kirkconnell: Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism and District Administration

  6. Anonymous says:

    Something that most people seem to be forgetting is that the “independents” are not a party. They didn’t campaign together, they he no agreements to work together and and most of them have very different agendas and ran on very different manifestos. The likelyhood of all 9 sticking together is u likely and egos will soon split them up even more. Having Arden or Chris Saunders as poren tial leaders sounds laughable. If people complaining ed about Alden I think you would find wide buyers remorse within a couple months of the other two.

  7. Anonymous says:

    He cares about us. It’s that simple.

  8. Anonymous says:

    maybe they are looking for status give outs again.

    • Sharkey says:

      This Election just shows us what kind of leadership that we have in our Politicians of what and who they really care about . I just didn’t see any leadership in Alden when he would run out of George town and leave one member of the party in such a bad spot , just because it would have made it easier for Alden to get re-elected if he ran in another district . That just shows me that if you were in a fire or on a sinking ship with him he would run and leave you .

      As bad as I and many more thinks of Mr Bush , we see that he pulled all of his party to success shows a difference in the two men .
      And don’t tell me that Bush is a better politician than McLaughlin , Alden should have everything over Bush , if he cared for anything or anyone but himself . But this just shows me what’s the difference between these two Men .

  9. Anonymous says:

    I can’t believe West Bay elected the UDP again. Come on wake up Bayas. Another 4 years of Bernie talking and doing nothing and Mac feeling sad for himself. What will the good capt do ?

    Mac disband the CDP retire from the LA and hit the casinos with your credit card. Bernie just get a job as you have failed at every business venture you tried.

  10. Unison says:

    NO MORE PPM or CDP!

    Let’s have another Party please! ?

    9 Independents … I think they can do it! ?

  11. Anonymous says:

    Proof as a friend of mine says that you should have to take an iq test before being allowed to vote.

    • For the people says:

      Says the elitist PPM who thinks they’re smarter than everyone else.

      • Anonymous says:

        Not at all. I voted for an intelligent independent in my constituency. That that does not mean that I can’t see skilled or unskilled people regardless of where they may have run.

  12. Anonymous says:

    It’s safe to say at least 10 of the 19 elected will be completely useless and be stealing a salary for the next four years. Well done Cayman!

  13. Anonymous says:

    “Moses Kirkconnell secured the largest percentage of any candidate when he won the CBWLC seat with 302 votes” Voters recognized the good changes that have been taking place in the Sister Islands.