Clock ticks for speaker on resignation request
(CNS): As of 9:30am Friday, the clerk of Parliament confirmed that she had not received a letter of resignation from McKeeva Bush more than a week after Premier Wayne Panton had asked him to step down as speaker. In his 15 September letter the premier had asked Bush to resign by 5pm today. While Bush reportedly messaged the premier in response on 16 September agreeing to vacate office and also told Minister Jay Ebanks that he was prepared to give up his role as speaker, Bush has now only hours to meet that commitment.
CNS has contacted the premier’s office asking what would happen should Bush fail to submit his formal resignation by five o’clock this evening and we are awaiting a response.
Bush has made few public comments on the situation including the allegations that while visibly intoxicated he had sexually harassed at least two women at an official cocktail party at the Ritz Hotel last Tuesday. But posting on social media yesterday, he denied the accusations. He also indicated that he had accepted an opposition motion for a no confidence vote in the PACT government and said nothing about his proposed resignation.
According to a report in the Cayman Compass on Friday, Bush had not confirmed when, or even if, he still intends to resign, stating that everyone should “wait on the due process of the law”. He said he was now focused on the the tropical depression heading towards Cayman.
“This country must be concerned with the oncoming hurricane and what faces our people, at least I am. I am beginning to prepare for my constituents of West Bay West and any others that may need help,” he reportedly told the newspaper.
While police have interviewed the alleged victims of Bush’s reportedly inappropriate behaviour at the CTO event, the RCIPS has confirmed that the inquiries are continuing. Bush has not been arrested or charged and it is not clear if police have yet approached the veteran politician, who remains on probation in relation to his conviction for assault in 2020, about these latest allegations.
At this point, Bush’s resignation is looking increasingly unlikely so he can only be removed by the MPs who voted him in or by the collapse of government. While the opposition have filed a motion calling for the no-confidence vote in PACT, no one on the opposition or government benches has yet filed a no-confidence motion for a vote on the speaker. At this point, the no confidence vote in government would, in any event, likely take precedence over any no confidence motion in the speaker.
Both votes would require a two thirds majority to succeed, which with 19 seats, regardless of the speaker’s inability to vote, still requires 13 MPs in support. A no-confidence motion in Bush is likely to attract the votes from the opposition as well as government benches, given the broad condemnation of Bush’s behaviour, but the success of the opposition’s motion is still, at this stage, far less assured.
Despite unconfirmed speculation that the PACT government is divided enough to bring themselves down, few members have spoken publicly about the resignation of Bush or the no-confidence vote. Heather Bodden (SAV) has posted on her social media pages that PACT remain intact.
Category: Politics
Time to get this back in the headlines
Leave it to Big Mac to whip up a hurricaine as a distraction to his latest escapades!
And Wayne for falling for taking advantage of it! We are still here waiting ol buddy! what’s the move ??
SMH
Wayne No. 1 priority is climate so ofcourse he is concentrating on Ian!
MacKeeva is not going to resign. Many Caymanians are stubborn, so much so that, if necessary, he will draw this out for years.
There’s so many people wanting to dance on his grave he’s bound to get buried at sea
what, you still here ? Grow a pair and better still, find some personal integrity, and resign.
One Man One Vote please….we can then clean house
Good play on words. I’m with you there.
it is currently 1 man 1 vote.
umm that’s what we have now???
Come on, it’s 2022. Women should be able to vote too!
That’s a gender neutral phrase, where “man” is used.
One Them, One Vote!
11:16, That is how McKeeva won in West Bay last election. Problem is that people in West Bay are politically stupid and can be easily bought off.
Sociopath plain and simple.
Yea, but ‘IT’ gets re-elected again and again, go figure on the intellect of those voters.
Again and again we need to be reminded that none of our opinions matters.
Mac Kenneth Jay Saunders Seymour will be elected by their own kind. The Uneducated, unemployed , and unprincipled….which is why sometimes, Democracy sucks.
Intellect, or integrity?
Ahh, I see Cayman’s ‘first and worst’ is still at it.
If a clown moves into to a palace, he doesn’t become king. The palace turns into a circus – (Turkish Proverb)
Boy is that true. Good one.
Sadly, the circus has been voted in repeatedly… Cayman: Enjoy the show – it’s what you wanted, now you got it.
This FIASCO must end, this is an embarrassment for Cayman before the world.
All Premier Wayne Panton has to do is follow Sir Alden’s example of how he moved Mac from the position of Premier in December 2012. Alden got Knighted for these kinds of brilliant acts.
All Wayne has to do is call a special meeting of Parliament specifically to remove the Speaker and elect another Speaker, because the purpose of the meeting is only to deal with the Speaker Mac cannot add the PPM motion of no-confidence to the agenda for this meeting.
Then once Wayne has removed Mac as Speaker he can adopt another one of Sir Alden’s politricks and keep the no- confidence motion off the Order paper or at least delay it until his PACT government has the time to respond effectively
One problem…Wayne cannot keep the current motion off the order paper, he doesn’t have the authority or balls!
Ahhh Mac, the pesky floater that just won’t flush.
PACT of Liars,Crooks,Criminals, Cronies and Dum Dum’S…….
I can see it now. Wayne’s will day he is still mourning the Queen and too busy with hurricane prep that he had to let Mac slide for today’s deadline. Next week he will say that because of the hurricane damage and nothing from the police that Mac will stay as Speaker. Then the public will see Wayne for the fake that he really has become. Sad.
If Waine doesn’t get rid of him I shall never recognize him again!
Who is Waine?
Lil Wayne?
No. Wayne Panton.
Wayne, Wayne or Vain, all one and the same….
Hardly
Lil Wayne might bring some sense of integrity and intelligent to both sides of the aisle.
Young Mula, baby!
Yep! Just like all our the others. I don’t believe we have enough honest people to make a good parliament! Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
We do have enough honest people to make a great government, but, unfortunately, we have not got them to run for public office yet.
That’s Honorable piece of s#!+ to you!
Step down you piece of s#!+.
Mac, the time to crawl in to your hole is now. go away and leave us be!
1:58, But the people of West Bay think he is a God. They will always vote for him no matter what he does.
The love for him is deep in West Bay. ❤️ 💕 ❤️
Sounds like a bunch of tRUMPers🤣
Mac might resign to become CEO of MC Restoration as Cayman starts the hurricane recovery phase. That’s if he is not too busy being Premier.
PACT’s relative performance is better in many ways than anything we’ve seen in last 30 years. There is actually a shadow backbench where there was none before. Certainly no worse than PPM’s record of private caucus. McKeeva’s court probation is another matter entirely. That should be considered and dealt with swiftly on its own merits. It’s odd that no charges have been laid, and that he has a passport to travel on, considering the stakes.
Why would he resign with just allegations? He was previously convicted for assault and he got a big pay raise. Previously arrested in Florida, nothing happened. Previously involved in using government credit card, nothing happened. First Cayman bank, the shady land deals and so the list goes on. Nope he is on solid ground and outsmarted the premier this time. Remember the Premier put him in high office with all this known. People get the government they deserve.
You keep leaving certain status grants off your list. They may be the most egregious of all, and deserve special mention.
There was a few more:
– Cohen financing deal and withdrawals from Vegas ATM
– Black ops security company expenses he tried to expense before admitting there was no security company and he had spent the money gambling
– CHEC port deal (lied about $1m default charge by Italian company…we ended up paying)
– Attempt to bring direct taxation to Cayman (Community Enhancement Fee)
This guy is a true POS and we have to call him Honorable. Cayman looks like a joke to the outside world.
And yet our robust law enforcers continually see nothing? WTF?
And the Stan Thomas payment for so called “Realtor commission”?
Remember Richard Parchment first sent this to Stan Thomas on a CI Government letter requesting the money, but later sent another letter on Cambridge Realty letterhead to request the commission to be paid.
But apparently our world class, very expensive and mostly imported robust law enforcers saw, and continue to see, nothing.
Seems so. Unfortunate.
No. Unacceptable. An outrage.
That did happen. Forgot about that.
That is the sad part, there are so many, you forget some. First Cayman Bank?
Which paid out something like 90 cents on the dollar after a long liquidation. That was a tempest in a teapot.
So? Vote him out!
That is NOT how it works. Most Caymanians can neither vote for or against him. A number of his voters were granted status by him. Many are literally given money or other benefits by him under what appears to be a system of grace and favor. It is not a fair contest and is certainly not operating under any principles of a modern democracy. The organs of good governance have long been required to intervene, and appear to refuse to do so. Why is that?
But where would James Bond get paid from then?
🤣
With the leadership we have had for the last twenty years, we ARE a joke to the outside world!
Shocking that those that are supposed to govern sit back and watch this! How about challenging this behavior and moving with the times!
Stay safe during this wind and rain Cayman!
You forgot the explosives situation.
The dynamite episode was a disgusting display of abuse of authority, and flagrant disregard for the rights of a civil servant who had called out a wrong-doing.
Having a man fired for showing responsible behavior , even by Mac’s standards , has to be one of his lowest points.
But our robust law enforcers and good governance of officials think it is okay.
If he had smuggled drugs into prison he would still be employed.
Was it a request?
This embodiment of avarice is clinging on as long as he can simply to extend the time he earns his ridiculous Speaker’s salary.
Concerned about the hurricane LMAO there is no hurricane happening before 5pm today! Concerned about stocking up on the liquor!
Quelle surprise. 3rd world mentality and ‘politicians’ and forever it will be thus. Mac holding all the cards again. Why oh why are people so scared of this man?
Wayne has painted himself in a corner – he has to push a vote of no confidence in Bush. But a vote of no confidence in Wayne comes first. Roy needs 7 to cross the aisle for that to win, which almost certainly needs Bush. If that vote fails, Mac is back at square 1. If it succeeds, either Roy is Premier and can reconsider his position on the Speaker in the absence of any complainant or published video, or the Governor decides to dissolve Parliament instead, in which case who knows how the cards will land after the election. In any of these outcomes Bush is way better off than simply resigning. Meantime as well as buying his constituents plywood like its going out of style, Bush is lobbying furiously to maneuver around the life ring Roy has thrown him with a vote of no confidence in the Premier.
Roy has not thrown Mac a life ring. The no confidence in government motion is separate from Bush. If Wayne brings a motion to remove Mac the majority would support it. Roy’s no confidence motion against the government will likely fail but it provides a platform to debate the failures of Wayne to lead his PACT and their collective failure to get things done and to govern effectively. We all know the government is dysfunctional at best and chaotic at worst. And that is being kind.
Unintended impacts are still impacts.
@1:11pm..So how does Wayne bring a vote of no confidence against the speaker if Roy brings and wins a vote of no confidence against the government?
The only way this could have would be if the “speaker” allowed Wayne to move forward with a vote of no confidence against the speaker prior to the PPM vote of no confidence in the government..I don’t see that happening. Alden knows he needs the numbers and if he can keep McKeeva to build his numbers to take over the government, he will be be in good shape. He knows that Mckeeva still “owns” quite a few of the PACT government members who will have to remain loyal and fall in line to his requests for them to walk. Alden and Roy will get their way and MacKeeva will continue to be the speaker and another incident of abuse by the speaker will once again be swept under the rug.
The only upside to this will be that because the people had no say in this PPM take over that Alden, the PPM and any of Mac loyalists will hopefully be removed at the next election.
Russia also said that they were not going to attack Ukraine.
Same way Putin is a lying reprehensible despot, Bush easily fits that category of bare faced liar and repeat criminal offender.
But he is a duly elected Minister, and then granted the throne. He is not to blame, it is his supporters and enablers – US!!! We can easily (not in actuality for the many that have been bought) rid ourselves of this cancer – vote him out!
Duly elected? Seriously? You grant many of your constituents the right to vote for you, in a move that is of highly questionable legality, against the wishes of the vast majority of the electorate, win in your tiny district by a very small number of votes, with it likely some of the voters are not strictly qualified, and that means you are duly elected?
Talking about Russia, Sir Alden seems to prefer a similar governance style to that of Putin.
Add Mr Orange Cheeto Head in the US to that list
It seems that all these wannabes want to be a circus clown………… and they have succeeded! Especially Roy and Mac.
Wayne don’t have the balls to do what he has to do.
Wayne can only ask him to leave..To remove him he needs a vote of no confidence..Instead of those power hungry fools fools in bringing a vote of no confidence against McKeeva they decide to bring down the government..I only hope that when their vote fails that they will realize there is no longer any need for them to run next term.
So fed up with PPM..Like a damn itch that you keep scratching and it keeps getting worse..
Wayne and Roy could ask the Governor to just fire him. He is (and has been for years) unfit for public office in general – not just Speaker.
That is not incorrect.
Except the Governor cannot fire him – check the Constitution. Governor can fire a minister – not the Speaker.
The constitution can be suspended, and should be (with the support of elected officials) in this instance.
Standing Orders can be suspended, but not the Constitution.
There is no “constitution”.
Yes, there is.
No, there isn’t.
An irrelevant PPM, trying to stay relevant is a display of being politically-challenged.
This should not be treated as a request. The fact that it is simply demonstrates that we lack to maturity, or even capacity, to govern ourselves. So sad.
Samuel L Jackson said it best.
“Enough is enough! I have had it with these mf snakes on this mf plane!“
That is a tasty cheeseburger?
Lol
Toughen up, because they goin pop you in prison, word.