Register lag means no election before April
(CNS): The UPM government is now expected to limp on for almost five more months as the governor is unlikely to call a general election on behalf of the premier before 1 April to prevent disenfranchising new voters. The current election law, which the government has been advised to change, provides a three-month review period for checks on all new voters after they register. The deadline to make the 1 April electoral roll is 1 January, as the deadline for the New Year register has already passed.
This means that if an election was called before April, anyone who has registered to vote since 30 September will not make the electoral roll that will be confirmed for the election. As a result, the earliest date now would be in April, with parliament being prorogued in February.
Although the lag in the register leaves what is effectively a lame-duck minority government in place, the opposition members and the four MPs who resigned last week are in support of propping up the UPM administration to allow the basic functions of government to continue. However, they will not support any contentious legislation.
Following the PPM’s announcement on Monday night that they were prepared to support the government’s need for a quorum so parliament can meet to tackle non-contentious issues, such as amendments to financial services legislation, Andre Ebanks MP offered his support. He said that after speaking with Opposition Leader Joey Hew MP, he agreed that supporting the minority UPM Government was the best way to proceed for the sake of stability.
“The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Joey Hew and I spoke, and we also concur on the matter of attending Parliament later this year to consider important financial services legislation, which will include amendments to increase financial services licence fees that will allow the Government to collect higher revenue in 2025,” he said.
“MPs Heather Bodden, Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, Sabrina Turner and I all share the view that the next general election should be as early as practicable in 2025, so that the people of the Cayman Islands can choose to elect a new group of principled leaders committed to good governance, professionalism, innovation and a shared vision to take our three Islands forward to a brighter future for this and future generations of Caymanians,” Ebanks added.
Hew stated Monday night that the opposition would not support any contentious legislation,0 and party officials have confirmed that this includes the controversial and unpopular changes the UPM had planned for the National Conservation Act.
Anyone who wants to vote in the 2025 General Election who is not already registered has until New Year’s Day to make that electoral role. At the moment, there are 23,529 people on the register, though there are estimated to be around 6,000 more people who are eligible to vote but have not yet done so.
For more information on registering to vote go to the elections website.
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Category: 2025 General Elections, Elections, Politics
Please get out and vote in 2025. We need it more than ever. The same people who have been making big decisions for Cayman need to go.
Reasons:
There is no reason we should depend on US Fed Reserve
There is no reason we should have more expats than locals
There is no reason we should be losing beaches privately
There is no reason we should be refunding duties on big corp
There is no reason we should be paying this much in fuel (yes there are better alternatives)
The list can go on.
The people in charge (and that have been charge) are responsible for the livelihood of the people/locals in Cayman.
Haven’t you heard what the consensus is? “Cayman na for Caymanians no more”. There’s obviously a reason why this is the common song.
Please vote, vote for a change, vote for the future.
Sick of these unsafe proposals to legalise weed and gambling. Soon we will legally allow unlimited weed smoking to get people to unsafe levels,??! and bother or kill other people with their lazy lifestyles, paranoia and anger bursts..and in trucks and cars.
Will business and insurance companies cover the pending disasters?!
Also..they can sitnon any beach or in the sports bleachers or next to a restaurant..anywhere with “smoking areas”, and puff away.
As we all know victims in jails, or zombies in the streets from weed..including victims of spiced spliffs with coke in them.
Unregulated spliffs are much different from medicinal herb, and the supply must be regulated..not by the canoe boys who also bring in guns, coke and criminals!
We voters need to take responsibility for who we elect. We can no longer vote on showmanship, religious mongering or smooth talk. Parliament needs financial analysts, economists, sociologists, strategic planners, agriculturists, civil engineers, etc. We need Caymanian professionals with a proven track record, who understand the importance of planning today to sustain our islands’ development in 30-50 years. We need intelligence, vision, values, integrity and an unwavering commitment to protect our democracy. Skeletons in the closet need to come out willingly. If we elect you regardless, special interests will have no sway over you. We need only look to the US and our Latin-American neighbours to see what can happen to us if we do not choose our MPs correctly. We do not need “politicians”, but DECENT Caymanians. It cannot be that we invest more time and care selecting beauty pageant winners, than the MPs who represent us both nationally and on the world stage.
But if an election is called for June, does that not disenfranchise anyone who registers after April? Etc etc. This is nonsense, just call it.
anyway, can we please see term limits and prevent anyone from serving more than 2 terms, consecutively or not. these career politicians offer nothing but the same, and they are why we are in this mess. Hew is simply Dart. Development will soar, unchecked. This is not a good thing for 95% of us, it does not trickle down. They’ve been lying to you about this for decades – unless your version of trickle is unaffordable cost of living, insane traffic, floods and impossibility to get anything done.
please Cayman, new candidates, term limits, and ban leaf blowers #makethemrake
I entreat well-educated, professional, critical-thinking Caymanian men and women to consider running. If honest, hard working citizens do not claim their right to be elect and be elected, crooks will. Do not leave our democracy at the mercy of cartels and other back-door dealers.
No matter who you vote for a politician will always win
Sorry our Apartheid laws only allow certain types of Caymanians to run for office.
It’s a shame you don’t have to actually experience apartheid laws; maybe then you’d understand how stupid you sound making claims like that.
Here is an idea:
Have an election now. The term will be until the next planned election. Let the MPs pay the cost of it themselves since they can’t seem to get it together. Then have another election, as planned next year.
They created this mess so let them suffer the consequences.
CNS Where do the number of eligible new 6,000 voters come from.
There are many younger caymanian persons who have simply not registered.
Likewise there are many persons who have been granted citizenship, some for many years, who have also never registered. Some of them for the dumb reason of not wanting to incur the possibility of being called for jury duty.
Jury duty should be mandatory for everyone that becomes Caymanian.
Agreed. Make voter registration mandatory and both issues are covered.
They also don’t want to have their personal home address printed and available to all in every post office
No need to go to the post office. It’s on the internet for the whole world to see
It should say eligible to register not vote.
IIRC that’s a census / boundary commission estimate. Those are people who could register. But haven’t yet so are unlikely to do so now. The actual number of people that this decision to go for an April election vs an earlier one will enfranchise? that is the question that should be asked.
Does the moratorium on contentious legislation include Seymour’s proposed immigration changes to restrict status for those who have been here 15 years?
That is not contentious. Nor does it require legislative change. Only those that deserve it, and will not weaken Cayman by getting it, should be granted it. That is the law today and has been for years. The government has not consistently followed it, hence the problem.
Giving status to any and everybody is a detriment to these islands. The majority of status holders are NAU clients, who are coming from a specific demographic.
They should be capable and responsible individuals, who can pay their way and not cause additional burden on any country.
Juju Ken Mac Saunders Jay and Seymour have obviously identified 6000 supporters whose votes are essential to keep them in power.
What’s best for Cayman takes a back seat to what’s best for me.
It depends where they’re from doesn’t it.
If you’re a likely voter for the cabal, then no problem.
If not, no way.
To Anonymous 10:03am: We do not have the land mass or generate enough resources to support the exponential population growth that comes with each Status granted. Think: One person is granted, and that creates a chain reaction for two, three, ten, etc. who are direct or indirect descendants of that one person. We are too small for that sort of system. It is our country and we have the right (and the duty) to preserve and protect it for the benefit of our own children.
This is all more stalling so O’Connor-Connolly can continue to make her deals with Bush and gang. Dart will get a real sweetheart deal for the dump and Bush will finally get CHEC in to do the port. This Governor is the worst that Cayman has ever had, she is a puppet for O’Connor-Connolly
incompetence till the very end.
any comment Mrs governor?
Anyone for a spot of afternoon tea?
No thank you, but a drop of elections in April would be nice.
Can’t make it. Ribbon cutting scheduled. Frightfully sorry.
We voted for them, not the governor. You obviously ascribe to the mother knows best school of colonialism.
She will have to check with JOCC & Bush first to see what they have to say.
The fact that a huge number of permanent residents that are members of the commonwealth are not afforded the same rights to vote (not run) in the elections given the United Kingdom affords that to them is nothing but clear disenfranchisement.
Even worse is that CAYMANIANS, are disenfranchised because they were born overseas and don’t have Caymanian grandparents and therefore can’t run.
Talk about discrimination, wild when you think how many of our people used to go to Jamaica etc to give Birth. How many candidates does that rule out alone?
Birth overseas does not (by itself) rule anyone out. Kurt Tibbetts and Tara Rivers (for example) were both born overseas. Provided they were both Caymanian from birth, they are eligible to run.
Their parent or grandparent needs to have been born Caymanian. So a lot excluded as very few have parents that were not born elsewhere now.
It’s not discrimination. This is common practice in many countries across the globe. Citizenship isn’t automatically given on being born here. You have to earn it or be born to a multigenerational Caymanian. If you can’t respect that then leave. The sense of entitlement in your comment is mind-blowing.
Your post is inaccurate since the issue is not citizenship but rather the right of ALL citizens to run for ANY elected office. What we have in Cayman falls into the classic UN definition of Apartheid. [The US limitations is only to run for one office..not ANY office.]
Apartheid!? Do you hear how stupid you sound? Good lord. What a load of absolute nonsense you are spewing.
If their comment is entitled then yours is staggeringly ignorant.
Is caymanian is a caymanian by law and yet only certain caymanians can run for the office by law (ignoring the usual stuff like criminal records etc)
Good news though , we are in such esteemed company as Lebanon and Nigeria when it comes to being one of the rare places that focuses not on our individual citizenship but that of our grandparents.
Voters can petition the Governor to dissolve parliament and call elections. Voters have the authority to do that at any time.
A big voting block is the civil service. How many voters need to sign the petition?