CPA observers repeat same election law concerns
(CNS): Issues raised by the latest mission from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association to observe elections in the Cayman Islands include campaign finance, the “unreasonable residency” requirements and candidate qualifications — repeating concerns raised by the missions over the last four elections relating to numbered ballots and dual citizenship, none of which have been acted upon. This year’s group also raised the huge disparity in constituency sizes and the inadequacies of the Referendum Act.
Nevertheless, the CPA team of election watchers had high praise for many parts of the 2025 election, especially the kindness of the Elections Office staff and the excellent support for disabled voters.
The international observer mission from the CPA British Islands and Mediterranean Region (BIMR) issued its preliminary statement on Friday. In their report, the observers said they were largely impressed by the whole process, which adhered to the local legislation as well as most international standards.
In addition to watching the elections, the mission is also tasked with making recommendations on how future elections can be improved. As such, the team noted some legacy issues in the Cayman Islands Election Act and the need for changes to improve the democratic landscape.
Campaign finance rules in relation to the $40,000 spending limit per candidate during the eight-week campaign and the limited period for which donations and spending must be documented were among the first issues raised by the mission in the preliminary report.
“Campaign finance was identified by the mission as one of the most controversial issues in the General Election,” the observers said. “The regulatory framework for campaign finance in the Cayman Islands covers the official election campaign period but remains limited in scope. The absence of regulation for pre-nomination spending and for referendum campaigns highlights vulnerabilities that could undermine transparency and fairness.”
The observers noted that the limited referendum law was passed late and was very limited in scope, setting out in a minimal degree how the referendum would be managed concurrently with the parliamentary elections.
“The law is silent on important matters such as the formulation of the referendum questions; the regulation of campaign advocacy on the referendum questions; campaign finance; the provision of impartial information to explain both sides of the questions; the role of the media and of lobby groups; and other measures necessary to ensure equity and fairness in the conduct of the referendums.”
There are no international standards on the conduct of referendums, but the observers said that the Venice Commission has guidelines for referendums that offer insight into good practice in this field of representative democracy.
The observers also repeated points made by their predecessors. The latest mission said the residency requirements for candidates to stand for election “are quite onerous”. Caymanians born here must live on the islands for at least seven years prior to Nomination Day, while those born overseas must have lived here for at least 15 of the preceding 20 years. No candidate may have been abroad for more than 400 days in the seven years immediately before nomination.
“These are, arguably, unreasonable restrictions on the right to stand for election,” the observers stated.
Another issue raised by the mission was the failure of the government to address the disparity in the sizes of constituencies. The Sister Islands have a constitutionally mandated right to two seats, so the country’s two smallest seats cannot be merged. But on Grand Cayman, the largest constituency of Bodden Town West, with 1774 voters, now dwarfs East End, which has the lowest number of registered voters across the island, with just 899.
The observers said the Cayman Islands Constitution states that “there will be an equal ratio between the number of elected members of Parliament representing each electoral district and the number of persons qualified to be registered as electors”.
But the electoral boundaries are not in harmony with these rules, as there is a significant deviation between the numbers of voters in different electoral districts. The previous government rejected the Electoral Boundary Commission’s latest report, and so a review of the electoral map is now well overdue.
See the full preliminary report and the press conference on CIGTV below:
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Category: 2025 General Elections, Elections, Politics
Solution for electoral boundary constraints: 1 Person, 19 Votes.
If a candidate can live in GCM but run for a seat in CBW-LCM, why can’t I cast ballots nationally? Would make vote-buying a thing of the past, as they cannot afford to pave all our driveways and purchase new appliances….
You will then also have perfect evidence of the “Desires of the People”, not just the results of “Garrison Politics”.
Everyone complains at the poor choice of candidates – let status holders run for office if the meet a strict criteria. Let the people decide and stop with the poorly educated candidates we currently have.
The rules regarding qualification persons to become MPs are governed by Sec 61 of the Constitution.
No politician is going to simply wave his or her hand and change those rules, nor do I believe would they be able to get away with changing a section as important as that without taking it to the public for a vote.
Even if there were 10 MPs willing to back that idea (good luck with that) I assure you it would be soundly voted down by the electorate.
Hate to break it to you but you might as well be advocating for paving the streets with gold cause it ain’t happening.
Unreasonable residency requirements to run for parliament? It is challenging to get residency in the first place in Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man not to mention other BOTs like Bermuda, BVI and TCI.
The election observers never “see” vote buying because voters have no way of informing them about it. Reporting vote buying to the election office goes nowhere – complaints go into the rubbish if they are recorded at all. If voters had a way of providing evidence of criminal activity relating to our elections to the outside observers and they published it then maybe something might be done. Perhaps that is why we are never be given the contact information for the outside observers.
I hope that the government now takes the advice for referendums and implements a stand alone referendum law to govern all referendums.
It cannot be ad hoc applied and not then used by one group to their advantage.
Sadly, as I’ve said before, we will likely have to initiate a PIR, in order to establish the legislation and protocols of PIRs.
Those onerous residency requirements are perfectly fine.
Go change the residency requirements in the UK or somewhere else, leave ours alone.
So, in short order, this group did absolutely NADA, and were ONLY here to try to edge Cayman to allow persons resident here the chance to run for elections. Thats ALL they came for…..
Forget doing ANY type of Proactive election oversight….
Figures…. Paid Vacation…. At the briefing you could see the sunburn reddness on the faces of this group…
So, can a people-initiated referendum change the constitution?
If it can, we need to start by merging the sister Islands with North Side and East End.
That will save us three salaries.
A people initiated referendum is binding, but there are limited scope on what can be put to referendum.
That’s why the gay marriage referendum that was circulating never got anywhere, because you cannot have a referendum that affects human rights.
Only citizens should be able to vote in an election. They need to retire that tone deaf rhetoric when considering the vulnerable status of Caymanians.
What is unreasonable residency requirements? They want us to just allow everyone to remain here permanently. We should never have opened the flood gates. Government needs to put a stop to this madness asap. This is cause for concern to say the least. We cant even find places to enroll our young children for school.
But it is not done in their country. So why ours?
Why can somebody from anywhere in he islands run in my constituency but i am limited in voting to my constituency only?
It would unduly restrict the pool of candidates if one had to be resident in that constituency.