CPR petition over 85% confirmed
(CNS): The petition calling for a people’s initiated referendum on the controversial question of the cruise berthing project in George Town Harbour has surpassed the 85% mark in the verification process according to the latest update from the elections office. As of 8pm on Monday the team had confirmed the names of 4,501 people with just 791 signatures left to check before a national vote can be triggered as set out in the Constitution.
The elections office said they have 1,162 verification forms from which to get the remaining 14.9% which means that the entire process could be completed, as hoped for by campaigners, before the end of August
Despite claims and counter claims about the process from both sides of this polarising issue the referendum looks increasingly certain to take place. While efforts by the pro-port lobby to allow people to change their minds and withdraw verified signatures after the fact of verification continue so does the collection of signatures by the volunteers behind the referendum campaign.
Having handed in an additional 26 names last week the campaigners had confirmed the volunteers are still working on dozens more to ensure that they are from legitimate voters and not repeats of previous signatures.
Johann Moxam, one of the leading activists behind the petition, said he was pleased that the required 5,292 signatures were close to being confirmed.
“Despite the efforts of the government to throw up obstacles and change the rules at the last minute, we remain confident, as we always have, that the 25% of the electorate will be verified,” he told CNS. “This referendum is inevitable as we have the numbers and we have always known we have the numbers. This is history in the making as Caymanians will get to exercise their democratic right on the question of the cruise berthing project.”
Moxam said this was people power and he was looking forward to the referendum.
For more details on the verification process visit the Elections Office website.
Cruise Port Referendum Signature Verification Countdown
* 5,438 submitted June 12th + 199 submitted July 11th + 26 submitted August 5th
** Constitutionally required 25% of the 21,116 registered electors = 5,292
| # of Elector Signatures submitted for Verification* | # of verification forms received | # of signatures remaining to be verified | # of verification forms remaining to reach 5,292** | % of the required 5,292** signatures received | Date & Time of Last Update |
| 5,663 | 4,501 | 1,162 | 791 | 85.1% | Aug 12, 8PM |
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Category: development, Local News, Politics
Watch the video on Radio Cayman, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbm2yfZP1jk It will answer a lot of your questions
Where is the LOL button? That show was a joke.
Austin Harris started to snore and show how classless he is as a MLA and spokesperson for the Unity government when Shirley Rhoulstone called him to ask questions. He is a one term wonder!
Austin Harris is what you get when you elect blowhard radio talk show hosts who beat women. No one should be surprised.
I am actually hoping we now have a referendum. When we show you how many of us trukly support the port you are going to be shocked. You are BARELY making the 25% and the rest, the other 75% on the other side waiting for you.
That’s how democracy works. Let the people have all the information and make an informed decision because this project impacts current and future generations.
The Referendum will make clear who supports or does not support the project. That’s all people have wanted from day one. All the facts, real transparency and to use their democratic rights to voice their questions and position.
We all owe the brave Caymanians in CPR who have pushed this issue a debt of gratitude into driving a national referendum.
That’s how democracy works
Kirkbots and professional bloggers on contract with the Tourism ministry and pro-port special interests are officially in DEFCON 5 mode are trying again to win the 👍👎 battle on the unscientific cns comment polls.
This is wonderful news! Now, let’s build the dock.
But I was told that the verification process would be deliberately delayed, the chinese was going to win the tender and the project would cost $400m .
Now none of this is true
The project will not cost $200m look at the track record of CIG. The cost overruns and change orders have not been calculated as yet.
The repayment to the cruise lines over 25years for financing will cost the country over $500m
The Compass reported that Verdant Isle will be paid a minimum $16 million per year in lost CIG revenue, for 25 years.
That happens to come out to exactly $400 million. So we are paying $400 million for a $200 million port.
The rest of your post I can’t be bothered to tackle but you should be corrected on this one point. This is, for our purposes, is a minimum $400 million port – that’s the price tag.
You can’t lose what you never gained.
No – but you can lose what you already have.
VOTER DRIVE: Any household with voter-eligible, or that stand to be “Continued as Caymanian” at 18 and eligible by November, that want to have their democratic say, should register NOW to be included in the Gazetted count. The games aren’t over by a long shot.
Ummm, there may be lots of non-Caymanians on the electoral roll, including substantial numbers of persons who did not apply to continue their status. This could get really interesting.
No, I don’t believe there are. All voters are eligible Caymanians; in order to register to vote, a person has to provide credentials to prove their birthright or status.
Dude, you trippin’ and it’s a bad trip.
Signed the port petition yesterday!
Those who are not registered to vote yet, please do so!
They need to keep counting past the 5292 mark, so that the results are something like 108% of the amount of signatures needed. In other words, to show that they received more than the required number for the referendum.
This is because Alden, Moses and their crew will try EVERYTHING to take names OFF the list.
So if they stop counting at 100% (5292), and then Alden n Moses take 1 name off, then they can say that the CPR people did not make the 100%.
So KEEP COUNTING / REGISTERING
Hey is this a Grand Cayman only thing? Not heard much of any talk over in the Sister Islands about the referendum.
CNS, can you check into this – just how many people in Sister Islands were able to sign up for the referendum.
Cruise Port for the Brac? Cruise Port for Little?
The Government of National Unity has claimed this entire time that they have the support of the people on this project so why is it necessary for them to continue the almost year long media blitz that is convincing no one and accomplishing nothing?
The problem with people that don’t use logic or rationality, you cant even see when their arguments make no sense.
If the people wanted a PPM port project they would have elected a PPM majority in 2017, they didn’t
If the people wanted this port project they would have expressed that in the public consultation period, they didn’t (which was actually 3:1 against the project)
If the Government for even a second thought they had a majority of Caymanians in agreement with this project they would not have voted against the motion brought by the opposition calling for a referendum last year
The government know full well the people are opposed to this project for a multitude of reasons, a horrible CIG track record with capital projects, risks the the environment, further overcrowding of GT, and further development in the area not for Caymanians but for a select few waterfront merchants who have failed to update 30 year old business models and instead are now demanding the government step in and shovel them new customers.
There are other areas of these islands that need immediate attention, schools are filling with no plans for expansion, the court system is physically overburdened and prevents swift adjudication, the traffic issues have never been worse, wages have been stagnant for 30 years, The prison is full with no plans for expansion
There are bigger fish to fry than some god forsaken cruise port meant to enrich family of certain ministers who will then conveniently get donations from those family members come the next election.
Irrespective of political affiliation, the people overwhelmingly elected representatives who had campaigned in favour of the port. I think it’s a huge waste personally but that doesn’t change this fact or indeed the fact that your above epistle is complete bullshit, which has been the problem of the objectors spokespersons from day one.
I could not agree more because it will get squashed in the vote by what more than likely will be a huge margin. And businesses will loose a day of business and it will cost the government money to set up.
All was needed at this point was for the petitioners to put their petty crap aside and put the referendum in temporary suspension for a sit down with the government and lay out all the grievances with the project and have the government respond to them in a public forum where no one can say this is made up or that after the fact.
This was we save everyone a crap load of time. This is a political ploy by some for the next elections but some people out there can not even buy votes because we all know who they are and what they stand for and no constituency wants them. They lost horribly last time and next time will be even worse.
You sound like a real donald trump idiot! Did you miss the memo that noted that more than a full one quarter of the voting public signed the damn petition asking for a vote on the cruise pier proposal? If you think telling that number of voters that they are full of crap is politically smart then your life in politics is very limited!
MAGA!
See what you did with your off-topic Trump narrative? Completely derailed the discussion. You have an issue with Trump, fine, go rant on a website that caters to it. It doesn’t belong here.
We only care about our own politicians and how their works (or lack of them) affect us all. They work for us. Let’s make them work for a change.
Agree with your overall sentiment — the 1/4 has been reached, pending only verification of …. now, less than 800. Soon come. The PIR will happen.
Let’s deal with this straight up.
First and foremost. Trump lies and leads with a false narrative. This is not what I am doing it’s actually what the petitioners are doing.
The cruise berthing is required because the cruise lines, not CIG BUT THE CRUISE LINES stated EMPHATICALLY that their MEGA SHIPS will bypass Cayman because their desire is for places where these ships go MUST have a cruise berthing. AGAIN CIG did not say this THE CRUISE LINES DID.
Now when it comes to Trumpism and Trump’s tactics look no further than your own people. Let’s start setting all their statements of scare tactics.
– China Harbor engineering
– Upland development
– 400 million
– It will kill SMB
Hell I forgot the others.
CIG came out and did a presentation with all the people needed to answer any questions. Where were you guys? Where? I saw CNS your mouth piece but WTH were your guys asking all the questions that would SHOW HOW EVIL CIG WAS. NOWHERE that’s where.
Why? Because it was all damn smoke and mirrors.
– No china harbor
– No upland development
– 196million not 400million
– It’s a flow under system allowing for marine life to swim freely.
Now on to numbers. So you want to flout your 25% do you. Do you realize that your 25% is HEAVILY OUTWEIGHED by the 75% on the other side. Much less I am willing to bet that when many of your people sit down and think about this carefully they will realize that they were being played and all the fears were just SCARE TACTICS.
So before you go throwing Donald Trump around you need look in the damn mirror because your guys ARE DONALD TRUMP. They use his playbook.
The cruisebirthing has been kicked around for years now. So much so that the Cruise lines sent high level officials to state the facts to bring the matter to a head and help us all understand that if we fail to act in 3 to 5 years we will loose 30% to 50% of our cruise tourism products. Now maybe to you it’s nothing but there are people out there that LIVE AND DIE on that money. A drop off in tourism of that magnitude will mean layoffs and possible business closures. What then smartypants? You going to give up your paycheck? You going to give up your bed for their kids?
Let’s also look at the fact that we are being attacked on multiple fronts. By Dec 2020 if we do not comply with UKs request we will be white papered to open our books. This will mean a certain % of Cayman’s business will go elsewhere where they can keep hidden. So in two years if left to your devices we could be getting layoffs from finance sector and tourism. HTH are we suppose to deal with that smart alec??
Is this perfect? NO. NO IT IS NOT. Will there be some sort of environmental impact. You darn skippy it will BUT IS NOT EVERYTHING?? Hell if you clear your damn land to build your home there is an environmental impact. We just have to try our best to limit the damage as best we can. Where there is damage there is new technology to grow reefs at a fraction of the time. We will have to look into this.
What Cayman needs is more financial legs to stand on. Our current legs are not strong and they are being attacked and because we have no other options we are forced to make decisions that in other position we might not do. BUT HERE WE ARE. Faced with two bad options. We can only pick the one that allows us to hand something on to the next generation and hope they will be smarter than we are.
The Compass reported that Verdant Isle will be paid about $16 million per year in lost CIG revenue, for 25 years. That happens to come out to exactly $400 million. So we are paying $400 million for a $200 million port. The rest of your post I can’t be bothered to tackle but you should be corrected on this one point. This is, for our purposes, a $400 million port – that’s the price tag.
I could care less what Compass reports when the facts were stated clearly at the meeting. The contract being signed is the one for 196 million. Who knows where they got their figures as it simply is not correct.
Are you getting paid per post?
There’s nothing more dangerous than the willfully blind that refuse to try a glass of reality.
Nope. I do it to set you idiots straight on FACTS
They got their figures by multiplying the $8 per passenger Verdant Isle will be paid by the number of passengers expected in a year. Assuming 2 million passengers, that is $16 million per year. Over the total 25 year period, that is $400 million. If there are fewer or more than 2 million passengers, it could end up being $380 million or $450 million; we will not know until we know how many passengers we get, how much revenue we have given up. The point is Verdant Isle will be *doubling* its money to give us the cheapest of the three options they presented to Government. The $196 million is the “cost” of the project; it’s just the ‘price tag’ on the bid. It’s not what we will actually pay, which is $8 per passenger for 25 years. The other point is, the $400 million figure we heard was not off at all – it was dead accurate, and so not scaremongering.
So tell me you reading all that stuff right. Did you read the part that says 196 million contract? It’;s kind of hard to miss. The $196 million is the amount you pay. So if you are building a home right and you go to get someone to build your home. They tell you the home cost $250k to build. You going to pay them $300k? Their profit margin is INSIDE the offer not outside duufus. Darn do we need explain simple crap to you. The amount stops when the contract price is reached. They are taking $8 per head until the contract agreed is reached probably plus some interest but it’s not $400mil. Damn man I want to work for you..
I am afraid you are the one who is not understanding and you would not enjoy working for me at all.
If someone is going to build me a house that costs $250k to build, but I agree with them that I will not pay them $250k but instead will pay them $400 for every day it takes them to build the house, and they take two years to build the house, that is 730 days x $400 = $292,000. Yes, that’s more than the house costs to build, but I haven’t agreed to pay the cost of the house. I have agreed to pay according to a formula. The contractor hopes or knows that formula will result in a number that exceeds the cost of the house, thus giving them a profit for building it for me and putting up the money. I get a house I couldn’t afford otherwise and they get more profit than they would normally make. This is not a difficult concept.
This is how the port deal is structured. Verdant Isle puts up the $196.5 million because that is what it costs to construct the port. That figure does not include their profit. Their profit comes from the fact they will get $8 per passenger for 25 years and the result of that equation will be much more than $196.5 million. The government’s projection is for at least 2 million passengers.
2,000,000 passengers x $8 per passenger x 25 years = $400 million.
This revenue stream to Verdant Isle does not stop when they have been paid $196.5 million. It stops after 25 years. The numbers work out to pay them much more than the port costs to build so that they earn a big profit for doing us the favour of building us a port we can’t afford.
If you do not understand this I cannot help you.
If you could care less, why don’t you and not bother posting!
@Caymanian 1:39pm please try again.
You are clearly a paid blogger posting on behalf of our government using public funds. Ms. Daphne was reading this same script on Radio Cayman yesterday when she called into OC’s show.
BUSTED!
That’s pretty pathetic that they need to go that low. SMH
No one going low. We are trying to educate the uneducated.
I wish I were paid but I just believe you guys are silly.
Use your real name to prove it. What are you afraid of?
Me? I ain’t afraid of nothin’!
If they all campaigned on building the port then it wasn’t an election issue where voters had a choice and so the election results give no mandate. Do you think thousands of registered voters would be backing a special vote just for this if they thought they had their say on this project in May 2017? Let’s not forget the government let the project go very quiet in the run-up to the election, having retreated after the initial uproar, to redesign the port to lessen environmental damage. Then they popped up after the election and said ‘remember the port? that’s still happening because we’re still here (ignore the fact we horse-traded to get here this election and the last) and by the way we’ve been advancing the port this whole time through the confidential procurement process that we never explained before’. This bunch could not have been sneakier. They have no mandate; the last election did not decide the issue. If it had we would not be where we are now with duelling PR campaigns and the first people-initiated referendum about to kick off. The referendum, if it fails to stop the port, is the closest thing they’ll get to a mandate but with the number of people I see on here talking about how they’re looking forward to a public holiday and not talking about the merits of the issue, even a failed referendum won’t give them a mandate; it will just tell us voters remain lazy, fearful of the government, and/or indifferent.
That’s a big old pile of rubbish. There is a process that the port went through. Yes they were redesigns. People cried out CIG listened. What, did you want them to ignore the people and just build it the way they wanted? DAMN people. You cannot have things both ways, you can’t say with one breathe they don’t listen to you and another that they changing things for some nefarious reason. The changes are why this has taken so iong.
Until we see the new EIA we have no idea if they listened. They expect us to believe that because the worst of the work has been pushed out into deeper water, somehow all the particle matter created by the work and ongoing operations once built is just going to stay ‘out there’ and not smother all the coral and turn the harbour white as people fear. If this redesign built the piers without damaging the harbour don’t you think they would be saying so right now, bragging about finding the perfect solution that gives everybody want they want? But you don’t hear that. They just say ‘it’s in deeper water’ and leave people to (they hope) think ‘oh, that means everything will be fine’. We don’t know that yet.
The people have the power.
Time to vote out Alden and all the clowns in the unity circus.
do you have a new set of uneducated clowns ready!
You are stuck with at least two of them from Brac – Mo$e$ and the lady who changes political colours – well they both have exceptionally strong support from their constituents. No doubt the lady will join any team as part of the majority. And as long as we in Brac continue to get and get more from Government, well we gonna keep voting those two back in.
So 8:03PM, I hear you but the old bald head guy from Bodden Town, the lady from West Bay, Mr. Mc from West Bay and fella from East End they gonna keep their seats.
I’m going to take the seat for West Bay South. She’s going home a loser this time.
Im registered in WBS and i will vote for anyone except her at this point!
This government are punch drunk and on the ropes hoping the bell will save them. The Referendum will be the final nail in their coffin and for the port
Thanks CPR for leading the charge demanding accountability and transparency. You are showing the country that we can make a difference and use our voices to impact key decisions and projects the government want to ram down our throats.
excellent…go get um…
Can’t the PPM not see that the public are getting fed up with their shenanigans. This referendum vote while on the port has larger implications. This is the no confidence vote in this government just like how the OMOV referendum was the vote of no confidence in the UDP.
It’s time for the PPM and the rest of the Unity government to pack their bags and go we have had enough. They cannot be trusted.
Better and better every week. Soon we will read 90 the 95 percent and then the big prize — 100% confirmed!
The only thing I don’t understand about this process is this: I have heard people that are for the port badmouthing the PIR; how could you not want the will of the people to prevail??? Yes, it’s MONEY, but it’s more than that. Regardless of the outcome of the vote, the very most important thing is that it will reflect the consolidated will of the voters.
How can that ever be a bad thing? Thing of the myriad of issues upon which WE can all decide after this PIR.
Wow.
then the port!
Stay tuned for all of the political lackey supporters going out in droves to push against the Referendum once the 100% is confirmed.
For every dollar that the Government spends on promoting the Port an equal amount of funds should be granted (as a grant from Cabinet) for the team that wants the referendum – is that fair enough Beaumont?
Naaaah….Cabinet only makes grants to those that bake the cake, not them who eat it.
Yes, that is fair; sadly, it is not really measurable, but your view is fair. I am of the opinion that CIG should not be allowed to use funds for any advertising.
I voted for most of this government, but I’m only supportive of a minority of it. This is a sad time (for me) in our country’s fair history. I believe in us. We will prevail — us, the people, the voting majority.