Seymour tops election expenses
(CNS) Dwayne “John-John” Seymour spent more than CI$38,000 to win his seat in Bodden Town East, the most spent by any of the 61 candidates who ran in the May 2017 General Election. The report detailing the expenses of all of the candidates and parties, which was published by the Elections Office on Friday, shows that the candidates collectively spent around $1.3 million in the eight weeks between Nomination Day and Election Day.
The Progressives spent over half a million dollars on the 15 members of their election team and considerably more per head than their rival party, the CDP. The PPM splashed out almost $34,000 per candidate, just short of the legal limit in the campaign period of $36,000 per party candidate, though the party listed a considerable gap between revenue ($344,583) and expenses ($509,315).
The CDP candidates spent differing amounts. At the high end Jonathan Piercy spent $36,200, inching over the party candidate limit but lost his bid for the GTW seat, while John Jefferson Jr spent only $5,500 on his losing campaign for WBS. But the total party spend of the CDP was $232,461, an average per head cost of almost CI$21,133.
Independent candidates’ expenses varied widely. Ezzard Miller, now the opposition leader, spent just $7,639 to retain his North Side seat, well short of the $4o,000 cap for non-party candidates. In contrast, some candidates spent tens of thousands and still lost. Ellio Solomon, for example, spent around $34,000 to lose the campaign in GTW.
Only three candidates failed to submit their expenses. Rudy Dixon, Kent McTaggart and Dennie Warren did not file returns in time, according to the Elections Office documents, but none of those candidates succeeded in securing a seat.
Elections officials said that the full returns are available for inspection at their offices from Monday morning. CNS will publish more details on the cash spent by politicians once we can access the documents.
See the Elections Office report on expense returns in the CNS Library
Category: 2017 General Elections, Elections, Politics
John John is a good businessman he can afford this. He has an excellent chief officer and will achieve alot for our islands.
Wait and see I predict construction of the waste to energy facility in 18 months.
Probably will IF he lets the processes started by the previous government continue.
Poor you. Here we are three years later.
Is there a penalty for those who go over their allowed spending?
Don’t blame them, blame democracy.
A friend of mine can’t get the medical care she needs, but these guys can spend a hundred times what she needs, just to get elected…..
Wake up people . . . . . .
It is clearly not about policies.
It is a about money.
Cayman going the american way.
You deserve it !!
John John goin’ make that money back in a few months. Them MLA’s gets da big money salary and da big pension monthly pay-out right away.
he had too…
I think this should be amended to show Dr T with the greatest campaign expenses. And Kenneth should have an asterisk.
What a sad joke. If Joke Joke only spent over $38,000 we all need to ROTFLOAsO.
Rudy kent and Denny didn’t file. This is the behavior that they complain about and yet are guilty. Shame on you Kent you hammered the civil service and now who will you blame?
What happens to those who have not submitted returns? Will they be barred from standing again?