District council law changes shelved until after election

| 01/12/2015 | 6 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): The government plans to amend the district councils law to make the process more democratic but will not get to the amendments during this term. Premier Alden McLaughlin supported a motion in the Legislative Assembly brought by the independent member Ezzard Miller about revising the legislation passed by the UDP administration to introduce some form of voting for the local advisory bodies but he said it would not happen before the 2017 election.

The North Side member suggested it was a good time to make the changes while government was going through the process of electoral reform, but the premier said it would not be possible before the next election.

“We are just 16 months away from the dissolution of the House and there is a tremendous amount of work to be done on the administration of the next election and the education campaign regarding voters and those planning to run,” he pointed out. “We will definitely consider it … but we are grappling with the election law and getting the resources together,” he added, as he offered his backing to amendments that would see the district council law become more democratic.

McLaughlin said that, given the move to single member constituencies, it would be better to wait and see how the councils could work in future. He expressed his support for individual smaller councils for each MLA because a council that was advising several representatives could prove difficult, as it was very possible that some were in government and some in the opposition. He said if the Progressive government was re-elected, it would be one of first items on the agenda.

Miller is the only MLA with a functioning district council. The PPM boycotted the process after the UDP passed the legislation in 2011 to facilitate the creation of local district advisory councils for MLAs by appointment, as provided for in the constitution.

The North Side District Council was democratically elected in town hall style voting, and Miller said he had benefited enormously from the council’s help, support and advice. He said that participatory democracy means the people that MLAs represent should be consulted.

“I know it works,” he said, adding that he understood the government’s position regarding priorities but hoped they could have addressed it during this term. “I have no assurances I am coming back in the next one,” he said.

Established before the UDP created the law, Miller’s council does not comply with that legislation. The UDP law made no provision for any voting and the members were all to be appointed by the government, with just a few nominated by the opposition members.

UDP Leader McKeeva Bush defended his previous government’s decision to create purely nominated bodies and said he still did not support elected councils. The opposition leader said civil society wanted and needed more voice in politics but only by appointment based on their skills and experience and to be above the cut and thrust of politics. Having an elected local council was defeating the purpose of having a body that advised MLAs from a position of knowledge and experience, Bush said.

If government had wanted elected councils, they should have put that in the constitution, he added.

Explaining why his UDP MLAs at the time had not created a council in West Bay during the previous administration, he said the PPM’s boycott prevented the appointment of opposition nominees.

The opposition leader said he recognised that everyone was “worried about where they were going to run in these small districts” as a result of electoral reform and said the premier had his own seat to worry about as the next election approaches.

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Category: Elections, Politics

Comments (6)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    I genuinely do not have a XXXX to give.

  2. Anonymous says:

    People with the appropriate skills and background should be selected and THEN they should be elected by the voters within the district. But heck that would be democratic and we all know true democracy is not really popular with MLAs.

    • Anonymous says:

      That sounds like communism to me. The party selects the candidates and then the public gets to agree with them in a sham election.

      Just who do you propose does the selecting? the governor? Big Mac? The churches? I mean get real. Democracy is about the voters doing the choosing. Maybe our voting public needs to do more research into the qualifications of the candidates and stop selling their vote to the highest bidding politician.

  3. anonymous says:

    It is funny that Grand Cayman has districts and political parties. What is the local population? 25,000? How many of them are children?

  4. Anonymous says:

    While you are in secret nontransparent talks with Dart you could assign someone to do the necessary ground work and get it done. I’m sorry. I lost my mind. You can’t even get new speed limit signs posted on West Bay Rd.

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