Districts pose problem for constituency review
(CNS): Retaining the five traditional districts boundaries in Grand Cayman while reshaping constituencies will result in more major population differences, the Electoral Boundary Commission has warned. As district meetings got underway this week, the three-member team tasked with redrawing Cayman’s election map explained the challenges presented by the huge population growth, especially in Bodden Town, since the constituencies were drawn in 2015.
While there will likely be boundary changes to almost all of the 17 constituencies on Grand Cayman, the most pressing and challenging problem that the commissioners face is how they deal with Bodden Town. In the eight years since the original single-member constituency map was created in 2015, the four seats in that district have increased significantly and are well beyond the average size of those in George Town and West Bay.
As she outlined the possibilities at the first meeting in that district on Wednesday evening, EBC Chairperson Dr Lisa Handley said that if the commission retains the traditional boundary for the district and redraws the boundaries of the four constituencies of Savannah, Newlands, Bodden Town West and Bodden Town East to make them more even, they will still exceed the international standard of no more than a 10% population difference among national constituencies.
She said that all four would be over-populated and in reality, the increases in the district’s population and its expected continued growth means it needs five seats to even out the numbers. But that means either merging North Side and East End into one constituency, a move that is bound to cause a backlash, or for parliament to vote to introduce an additional seat, increasing the number of MPs to twenty, which would require a constitutional change.
EBC member Adrianne Webb said that in order to avoid the possibility of a hung parliament, the legislature needs to retain an uneven number of seats, so it would really mean increasing the membership to twenty-one. While this would be an additional cost, Steve McField, the third member of the commission, said that the importance of a functioning and fair democracy was more important than costs. He also argued that, contrary to popular belief, MPs do work very hard and there is plenty for additional members to do.
The EBC members said they do not have the power to add seats, so they will still have to come up with a feasible re-drawing of boundaries that creates an even number of existing and future voters in each constituency on Grand Cayman.
The Constitution mandates two seats for the Sister Islands, even though both constituencies are in decline and fall far short of the average size. As of 1 April, the electoral register had just 459 voters for Cayman Brac East, the country’s smallest constituency, compared to Bodden Town East, the largest with 1,648 voters.
There are no constitutional requirements with regard to the electoral map in Grand Cayman. However, Webb stressed the significant importance of district boundary lines and noted that people would not welcome an electoral map that crosses those boundaries. But it is clear that with the growth of the Caymanian population likely to continue in the constituencies east of George Town Central, the map will have to either be unfair or break with tradition.
McField also warned that the continued population growth in some areas and a decline in other places where local people can no longer afford to live means that government must put a lid on this surge in population and incentivize people to move out to East End and North Side.
The commissioners are looking for comments from the public about their task and the best way to accommodate the wants and wishes of voters, rather than politicians, while maintaining a fair and balanced electoral map.
The public meetings continue in Bodden Town this evening at the Theoline McCoy Primary School (Bodden Town Primary) starting at 7pm. Members of the public can also email their comments or questions to ebc@elections.ky or visit the Elections Office website for more information and details of the remaining meetings.
See the current electoral maps here.
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oh dont tell me…more constituencies which will require more MPs, more salaries and higher public purse budget for running costs? how many MPs does it take to run a small island with less than 100k people….?
We have an excess of 19 MPs at present.
Why do we need more than west bay, George town, Bodden town, northeast, sister islands? Why don’t we have also have a chamber based on proportional representation to counterbalance the legislative assembly? Maybe even allow expats a certain degree of representation in one of the chambers. Before u start, I’m caymanian trying to understand wtf we are doing and why.
I’d like to see a education department prioritizing civil education and engagement. Hopefully that would lead to a better educated political class that can further reform the bullshit system we have now. But that would require our current crop of MLas admitting that they aren’t built for purpose, just temp placeholders until we get educated professional patriotic politicians in their positions. Unfortunately humility and foresight are not prerequisites for caymanian leadership.
I mean hello, Kenneth Bryan, JuJu, Mckerva, Jon Jon… Hoooooow!? Where are our standards? When are we as a people going to say ok enough with the f***ry?
Speaking of constituents: it’s remarkable that our airport customs and government offices are still displaying stock pictures of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip (deceased 2+ years). The recent Coronation of King Charles and Queens Camilla were months in the works to ensure various international protocol offices could get their act in gear. Embarrassing that we pay people to attend to such simple tasks and they still manage to fail. First impressions matter.
Nobody cares.
As usual, a little research proves this bell-end wrong. It looks like the official photo of the new King was only just released a week ago.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/05/king-charles-releases-his-official-coronation-portrait
Nobody cares.
PACT fired head of Protocol and it’s been a shambles ever since.
All smoke and mirrors and bullshit. If they are prepared to have a constitutional change then let’s use the opportunity to reduce the number of politicians AND have a National vote.
If we do not get a Constitutional change, fairness the most important issue. Merging North Side and East End is an obvious place to start – or move the boundaries so that some of BTE merges with East End and North Side incorporates everything on the cross island road.
Creating more expense is the very last thing we should do.
Given the recent discussions about the Electoral Boundary Commission (EBC) and their challenging task of redrawing Cayman’s electoral map, it is apparent that our political system is grappling with significant issues. Population growth, particularly in Bodden Town, and a shifting demographic landscape pose challenges to fair representation. As we consider these challenges, it may be time for us to rethink our system.
A proposal worth considering is the adoption of a bicameral legislature with a Lower House and an Upper House. This would provide a more diversified representation of interests, ensuring that all regions and populations within our islands are appropriately represented. The Lower House could still represent geographical constituencies, while the Upper House could potentially offer proportional representation, addressing both geographical and demographic changes.
An Upper House would add a layer of scrutiny to legislative processes, fostering stability and preventing hasty decisions. While the introduction of an Upper House might seem daunting and possibly costlier, the benefits of a fairer and more balanced democracy should not be underestimated.
Another important issue is the appointment of Ministers. Rather than assigning ministries to MLAs who may lack relevant expertise, we could have Ministers appointed based on their qualifications and experience, potentially even including individuals outside of the political class. Advisory boards made up of experts could further ensure each ministry is guided by specialized knowledge.
Education and civic engagement are crucial in the face of these potential changes. We need broad public education campaigns, consultations, and polling to ensure everyone understands the new system and can contribute to its formation. Transparency in the redrawing of constituency boundaries is crucial, and an independent commission with opportunities for public input should handle this.
The members of our EBC are facing a difficult task, and their expertise and impartiality are essential. In addition to understanding their qualifications and the appointment process, we must support their work and engage in the consultation process. The challenges they face underscore the need for systemic change.
While change may be challenging, it often brings progress. As Caymanians, we live in a vibrant democracy, and it’s our collective responsibility to ensure it continues to evolve to serve our changing needs. A reformed political system could help ensure a fairer representation of all Caymanians and pave the way for a more balanced and effective democracy.
We need to promote civic education, civic engagement, and hopefully in the future we can dilute the currently inept pool with qualified professionals.
We have less than 25000 voters. We need more politicians like a fish needs a bicycle. Especially at over $150K a pop plus expenses. What we could do with is some politicians that a taut turn up to parliament and do their jobs on a regular basis, but that’s too much to hope for.
Traditional district lines don’t mean anything. Move the damn lines so there is equality. Why is this commission debating things they have no power to do? There are not going to be any constitutional changes anytime soon so work with what you have. North Side too small? Add some folks from back of Bodden Town. No problem once the road runs through toward Frank Sound.
Let’s not confuse the “district” we live in with the “constituency” we vote in. Remove the district name from the constituency. So I would vote in GC West 1 or GC Central 3 or GC East 5 or LI 2, etc. depending on where I live and register to vote. Therefore the constituency boundary could cross district boundaries without issue. The MP is representing a constituency NOT a piece of a district.
If a minor constitution change is required, so be it. Its not rocket science.
OMOV is a disaster, as predicted.
You would have the same problem with proportional voting. Proportionally give the Sister Islands less than 2 votes/seats? Proportionally give EE & NS less than 1 vote/seat each? – Proportional vs OMOV is not the issue/problem/solution.
It is laughable that an island the size of Cayman with a voting population of less than 50,000 has 19 – 21 members of parliament. Who can think that is a good use of public money?
The 19 -21 members of parliament, obviously.
The mechanism of abuse is mobile and mail-in ballots. UDP and PPM MPs garnered nearly half of votes cast for them vis those suspect mechanisms. The WBW contested seat was won by a couple dozen votes, so this matters. Essentially it came down to gifted senior day turkeys and shiny grandchild bicycles at the park giveaway hosted during election. campaign. Moving electoral boundaries won’t improve unprosecuted treating, nor remove international and dead voters that shouldn’t be on the list and/or counted twice with a deliberately antiquated and flawed paper ledger-based district polling system. Also suspect that the salaried watchdog for “free and fair elections” works in the Premier’s office during the off-season.
Watch out for hanging chads.
The more organised group will always be better able to turn out the vote, and will naturally focus on their voters (or voters they can convince).
Treating – We can all agree is corruption and should be reported and prosecuted.
Since the electoral roll is open its easy to see that there are no ‘international’ or dead voters on it whose vote is counted. Open review is a very effective method of data checking, especially as so many of the potential checkers – such as yourself – have a vested interest in making sure that the rolls are corrected.
A paper based system, while old-fashioned, is not by its nature any more flawed (or open to flaws) than any other system. It does have the advantage that you know what you put on the paper – as opposed to electronic systems without manual audit components (some have them I know) – and again the verification is the open vote count with highly interested (by their partisan interests) oversight.
The elections watchdog is not the elections office, it is we the voters. The open elections system we have here allows the watchdogs to see what is going on.
The WORC/immigration department have arrival and departures data on everyone and should be automatically scrubbing the electors list to remove those that have lived elsewhere past time. The dead ones also have records. It’s either laziness or deliberate, you can guess which.
5.25pm Read the Constitution.It provides for those voters who qualified before 2009 to not be removed unless they agree. So it’s not laziness or deliberate.
Paper constituent ledgers at polling stations allow some dishonest mobile and mail in ballot holders to show up at a polling station to vote a second or third time.
5.33pm Please explain how.
You mixing apples with oranges 10:51 and from your tone it is evident that if it was broken down for you that you would still fail to understand. Just saying!
19 is such an odd number one more to slurp at the public trough would only hurt the tax payer and to put the government in just another conspiratorial stalemate to do absolutely nothing Go for it ! Can’t hurt us any less with a Georgetown Standoff at the Fort Street Corral !
We should do away with voting, just have a raffle. Everyone can buy a ticket (probably limit to 1 per person but i’m open to suggestion). If your name is called out, you can choose which district you’d like to represent (or maybe we do it district by district, this is a work in progress thought)
we could stream it live on tv if we had a local one, guess social media will have to do. Maybe have the governor pick the tickets out. Or some of the prisoners at Northwood.
Best to do it at Pedros for historical purposes, although on top of Mount Trashmore for the view is always an option
Either way, can it be any worse to have a parliament made up of Miss Betty, Uncle Noel, the guy from the dominos, that lad who fills up your tank if hes awake and Mamma Shanaka than the current bunch of numbskulls?
Maybe this is a stupid question, but why do we need district specific representatives and voting protocols anyway?
Put every name on the list and every voter selects the 17 (or whatever the number is) candidates they want?
Then let the MPs allocate the districts among themselves.
I mean… why is that not a viable solution? Seems fair and equal, no?
No one man one vote, no party politics…
Geographic representation assumes, in part, that people will vote in socio-geographic blocks.
Your system assumes that people will not vote in socio-geographic blocks.
Your system assumes that someone in West Bay would be as likely to vote for someone from Brac they have never met as to vote for a WB candidate that they have some pre-existing knowledge of. (I know X is an honest fellow who thinks things through and takes balanced positions, since I know him from the school PTA, or whatever. I know nothing of Y other than his prospectus, and you know you can’t believe what politicians say in those things.)
This is one reason why polities tend to have some form of geo-political aspect, because it works with people’s natural inclinations.
Bonus point, if I know that most of my votes came from WB-South & GT-North, just like Barbara & Mary, which of us gets stuck representing North Side where we do not have a natural link to the voters and there’s not enough of them to elect me in a national vote? Who gets penalised, under your system?
How about we can just vote for whoever we want regardless of where we live? you can keep the boundaries and whoever wins most seats in each is officially in charge of that district (or 3 or 4 depending on whatever you want), but why stop someone in GT voting for someone in Northside? its not like its very far and frankly the issues are the same anyhow…the dump…education…cost of health care…cost of living…etc
vote for whoever you want
I would be able to Register to vote in West Bay, as would my husband, if my status application were decided. When would that be? There must be hundreds in my position.
9.35.. sad to say..
If you and your husband are educated , and ‘nonCaribbean’ , then your status will be delayed indefinitely. Mac and his new best friends, Kenneth, Seymour, Saunders and Jay, know that you will see through their power hungry scheming and not vote for them.
This comment reeks of imperialism and prejudice.
Actually, all evidence is that it is factually correct.
“Imperialism and Prejudice” !
The truth certainly seems to have ghasted your flabber.
True tho.
Merge the smaller ones and I don’t really think that many people will really care if we cross district boundaries.
“incentivize people to move out to East End and North Side”. Steve obviously hasn’t driven into town for work from those districts recently, otherwise he would surely not make such an asinine comment.
His job is to re-draw the districts, stay in your lane buddy.
We need Candidate rules in the Elections Law to be amended to prohibit anyone running for office with a criminal record, history of serious public trust violations, abuse, theft, addiction problems, DUI convictions, or other dishonesty. Anyone with charges pending in the courts should also voluntarily step aside in the interest of the integrity of the House. Educational and work history criteria would also be appropriate – but not if that history is of being a crook. Full public website SIPL registries.
Then you couldn’t find anyone to run except children.
Rotten boroughs = rotten MPs.
Reverse it and you’ll be on to something.
Equal representation is a must. Brac and Lil Cayman should be combined to form one seat unless or until their population grows. Change the constitution and make this happen.
Next, east end and north side should also be combined into one district. Someone will or may be upset? Too bad. There is no justification as to why their residents shoukd enjoy more political power than Caymanians living elsewhere.
Mcfield saying east end and North side should increase development to justify having extra power is a foolish proposition with flawed logic.
Finally, to even think that Cayman needs more politicians with such a small population is a joke and contrary to their opinion would be wasted money for no benefit other than the political class.
Preach so much validity in this post.
Its past time the sister islands, North Side and East End representatives reflect their actual population versus this narrative of historical boundaries. No way in hell should we ever consider increasing MPs there are already too many.
We do not want a presidential style democracy, as in: “El Presidente”…we have enough narcissists in politricks here already. To officially label one as being “supreme” and concentrating power in one person’s hands, would be an unmitigated disaster for these islands. Think of the corruption, the vanity/white elephant projects that would end up 4 times (MINIMUM) over the already inflated (“padded”???) budget…..
+ Get rid of single seat constituencies.
+ Get rid of first past the post, winner take all “Westminster style” elections.
The above promotes clientelism, graft and the “West Kingston” effect. MLAs (sorry can’t bring myself to use the term “MP”) have only a few hundred constituents they need to “look after” to keep their personal vanity show on the road…..
+ Bring back multi-seat constituencies
+ Bring in proportional representation where we can vote for as many candidates that are on the ballot paper, in order of our preference
+ Have a mixture of 3, 4 and/or 5 seat regional constituencies totalling 16 seats
+ Have 3 seats that are elected on an “islands-wide” basis (where real statesmen/women can be expected to run for election) – a “Super” constituency
+ Electors to have the ability to vote in their local regional constituency’s AND/OR the “Super” constituency – then SURELY we must have at least ONE decent candidate that we could vote for in the local region or in the islands-wide basis, but we would have the ability to vote in both if we so chose to do….
The rest of the world has political parties – think of them what you will and whilst not perfect, they do promote (party) discipline, a program for government and the ability to get things done. An assembly/parliament of INDEPENDENTS is an exercise in herding cats, back room deals with no strategic planning; all short-term chaos and confusion – exactly like what we have right now.
never work , makes too much sense.
They are already scheming on how two more seats in Bodden Town will benefit them
The plot so far.
Saunders stops all PR and status grants to educated professionals, knowing they would never vote for him, Seymour, Mac , or Kenny.
Then add 2 more MPs in Saunders Seymour strongholds.
Take next step wid de bredren dem to turn us into Jamaica and Independence.
Good forbid.
That is EXACTLY what is happening.
West Bay -2
George Town-3
Savannah and Newlands -1
Bodden Town -3
East End and North Side-1
Lesser Islands- 1
Done- Problem Solved
Sister Islands ?????!!! Jesus !!
Lesser Islands!!!!!!! Jehova !!
5.33pm Please explain how.
The country was better ran when we had less MPs. Appreciate we have to follow the international standards but let’s face it, any other part of the world where there are good governance, MPs are not able to go against protocols just satisfy their personal agendas. A good example of this is the EIA study for the east west road.
International standards would mean that we have far fewer MPs – the number of voters per head is less than a small county council in the UK, and yet Steve wants to add even more pigs to the trough. And international standards for political representation might mean Parliament sitting a little more often than the sporadic interruption to there private affairs that these clowns indulge in.
We know why they care. Why do WE care? I sure don’t. My vote only matters if the MP elected remains true to their stated platform, and doesn’t recombine after the election with others opposed to their stated view.
I want a vote for Premier, and a vote for my district. Then, and only then, will things remain pure. Of course, those in charge of the vote will never allow that.
You can’t “vote for the Premier”.
This is a parliamentary democracy not a presidential one…….
Democracy, what a joke
So what? That can be changed when the people want a change.
7:42 with a name like your, wondering how long you been iving in Cayman ?, asking for a friend. With good respect sir.