Petition verification nears home straight
(CNS): Officials from the Elections Office say they have now verified 88.8% of the required number of signatures on the Cruise Port Referendum petition to trigger the national poll. As of 3pm Saturday, the team had checked 4,698 names and now has fewer than 600 names to check to reach the required 5,292 signatures of registered voters calling for a people-initiated referendum on the proposed cruise berthing project in George Town.
Despite the continued efforts by the pro-port lobby and government to encourage people to ‘un-verify’, the verification process is nearing the home straight.
There are still 965 signatures from which to collect the last 594, and the campaigners are still collecting names to make up for those people who have changed their mind since signing, have refused to verify or have been allowed to sign, verify and then un-verify. It therefore appears that the petition is on track to be 100% confirmed by the end of this month.
The CPR volunteers and activists are encouraging people who have not yet registered to vote to go to the Elections Office to ensure that they can take part in the poll, which is likely to take place before Christmas.
CNS has learned there are no plans, as have been previously suggested on various talk shows, to hold the referendum as early as October, given the work required to prepare the country for a national vote. This means there is still time for eligible Caymanians who are not registered to make the next voter list and take part.
See the most recent update from the Elections Office below:
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 | 4,968 | 965 | 594 | 88.8% | Aug 17, 3PM |
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Category: Local News
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.
I wonder do they get paid by the post?
“Could it be? Could some people actually hold a different opinion than me?? No no, it must be someone paying for bots!”
Not sure who needs to get a life more, you, or your alleged person who’s spending their money on internet points.
An old saying I have heard in many countries , You cant fight city hall . Hopefully in this case that isn’t true ! Fix the airport that’s where your moneys at for tourism . They are fast becoming persona non grata . Check Venice .
I’m really not wanting any more of these floating petri dishes coming to our waters
https://nypost.com/2019/08/15/gross-carnival-ship-earns-the-lines-worst-sanitation-grade-ever/
8:12…nope…no marine park…they just dont care…i troll for tuna in 600 ft of water…
CNS I the phrase you mean ‘Home Stretch’. (Can be one word or two) I’ve never hear of it called ‘home straight’…
CNS: ‘Home stretch’ is more usual in the US, ‘home straight’ is more usual in the UK, but they are interchangeable.
We don’t like to talk about alternatives to “straight” here.
*fewer than 600
CNS: My excuse is I’m tired.
Tired blocking alternative views to yours and CPR😂😂😂😂😂😂
Finally you give in 😂😂😂😂😂😂
You should be – Notice the amount of comments 🤷♂️
Minister of Education declared today that the port is going through….
Well they aren’t very smart, are they?
Yeah, the minister of education needs a new port!
i am not for the port..but to get rid of those ignorant…disrespectful tender boats would be a delight! they skim smaller boats dangerously close…as i am a fisherman and have experienced their attitude first hand…
Fishing in a marine park, eh?
It’s not a Marine Park anymore!!!
Perhaps the LA needs to be put on notice that if they ask a biased question, the people will hold a no confidence vote and then an election, electing candidates who are prepared to ask a fair question, immediately put into action Standards in Public Life and to investigate deeply whether those standards have been broken.
5.13pm Problem is the people cant call a no confidence vote. Not wihout a referendum.
Let’s build the dock.
CNS can you find out who is clearing all the mangroves between the Island Heritage RoundAbout and the North Sound as well as the large track on Batabano Road near Willy Farrington Drive?
Where are the environmentalists now?
Or do they only care about mangoves sometimes?
CNS: We’re checking on this.
Thanks, CNS.
Maybe the public doesn’t know this is happening. Thanks for bringing it to light!
mr guy harvey we need you man?
To do what? Spend your money and reap the benefits?
Still waiting to hear/read the preferred referendum question as proposed by the organisers.
Cabinet will make it some totally leading question like “should the Cayman Islands have enhanced cruise and cargo ship berthing facilities?”
Everyone would like to be able to say “yes” to that. The devil is in all the many details. When you get into those, you get a question more like “should the natural harbour in Grand Cayman be destroyed to bring more cruise ship tourists?”
What the question should be, after full disclosure of everything – everything – to do with the project, is something neutral and specific like: “do you support the Government proceeding with the proposed [insert port project name here]?” Then those in favour can cry “YES!” and those against can cry “NO!”
LOL – No, it will probably more like: Should the Cayman Islands have enhanced cruise and cargo ship berthing facilities so that the country doesn’t lose cruise ship tourism, causing many Caymanians to lose their jobs and the implementation of income tax on all Caymanians.
LOL 3:44pm That’s about right.
1) We will still have cruise ship tourism, we just won’t be called on by the almost-zero cruise ships operating in this region or that will operate in this region in the future that ‘need’ piers. Cruise lines have told us this, in contradiction to what the government said over the years (that we will lose the industry altogether without piers).
2) The impact on employment of the project going ahead or not going ahead is one of the murkiest aspects of this debate. The best Moses can come up with is if we do the project, we will have ‘more jobs of the same type’ as we already do, and if not, we will have fewer such jobs. There can’t be many people wholly dependent on cruise tourism for their living (e.g. taxi drivers – they carry everybody everywhere, the port is just one source of income; tour operators – they serve stay-overs too; restaurants – they serve everybody, etc.). For the small group who are wholly dependent, we are not going to lose cruise tourism, so most of them will keep their jobs and businesses too. So you end up with an unlucky few, maybe a few dozen who land on hard times, who probably aren’t doing the best jobs currently or whose businesses already have problems. Well, that’s life.
3) Income tax for Caymanians – you must be joking. Caymanians wouldn’t even stand for the government taxing expats. Our economy is not based on cruise tourism so a drop in it would not have such an effect. Our economy is based on financial services, other services, and stay-over tourism – all of which suffer from an increase in cruise tourism, and benefit from a drop in it.
Sorry the sarcasm was lost on you!
“Our economy is based on financial services, other services, and stay-over tourism – all of which suffer from an increase in cruise tourism, and benefit from a drop in it.”
Your financial services is going down the drain. Your banking system used to be a huge revenue center, now the banking is lost. No one unless absolutely necessary opens a bank account in Cayman. The same is going to happen with finance. No one will open investment funds here. That’s already happening for the most part, you are mostly living off the remaining canned food now in terms of finance. unless something drastic happens, this will be gone on 20 years and there will be mostly tourism.
@ 3:44 pm; What????? Do you mean they would LIE about it?
Please don’t assist them in coming up with twisted questions for the vote.
Just ask “do we really need a cruise ship dock?” – and wait for the resounding “NO”!
Extra holiday
Port project setting up to sink
Gay marriage appeal setting up to fail
2019 wrapping up nicely. all we need is taxed recreational cannabis now.
Legalize the herb next!
On every cause list you see something about consuming ganja yet we give civil servants designated areas to smoke tobacco
You forgot, get uber and lyft
I hope we will get a list of the persons who “refused to verify” and those who “verified and then unverified.”
They should all be counted as having signed the petition because THEY SIGNED THE PETITION!
1:36pm
You all too fast.
Always up in other people’s business.
Worry that you went and verified your signature and leave others to make their choices!
The government need not be concerned. The minister has said ‘the sooner the better’. He also stated that the people will overwhelmingly support port project
If he really feel like that then why are they fighting it all the way? does anyone know if we will know exactly what the question is before we see it on the balllot?