Joey still claims new CIG ‘not the will of the people’
(CNS): In a short address to parliament on Wednesday, Opposition Leader Joey Hew said it wasn’t the will of the people but negotiations that had once again led to the formation of a new Cayman Islands Government. However, the number of people who voted for the party members and independents now seated on the government benches is almost double the number who voted for the official opposition and the independent member for BTW.
Overall, the TCCP, the CINP and the three independents who have joined the government won over 10,000 votes compared to the 5,044 votes cast for all of the PPM candidates that ran, plus 565 cast for Chris Saunders (IND), who is sitting on the opposition benches. Saunders has still not joined the PPM but said on the campaign trail that he would back the party to form a government.
In a short statement delivered during the adjournment debate in parliament, Hew said it was the “beginning of a new chapter”, and while the results had not unfolded as he and his team had hoped, “they tell a story that we must all take to heart”.
He said, “The PPM emerged with seven seats, the largest number by any party, but once again it is negotiations and not the clear will of the people that have shaped the formation of our government.” He added that this was “not the first time we have found ourselves in such a position”.
Faced with no choices, Hew said it would be easy “to dwell on disappointment”. Instead, he said he had a heart filled with gratitude and a renewed spirit, as he thanked the more than 5,000 people who voted for his party, as well as the work of all the volunteers. He said that the efforts of those PPM candidates who lost were not in vain, and they were still part of the PPM family. “Change is not a single event but a continuous process,” he said.
The opposition leader said his team would serve with dedication and integrity, as he congratulated the new government, which now faces a number of challenges. He said the opposition would not “waiver in our duty” and that the work ahead demanded collaboration and a focus on the greater good. But they would hold the government to account or work with them where possible to achieve a shared goal for a brighter, more inclusive, prosperous Cayman.
His new colleague and long-time PPM member, Roy Tatum (RED), also noted that before the members knew it, the election cycle would be around again, and they all “had work to do and no time to waste”.
Pearlina McGaw-Lumsden (GTW) said she would work for and serve in the interests of all voters, while her Bodden Town PPM colleague Dwayne Seymour wished the government well, even though he raised concerns that the district may get left out, given that the two constituencies were not represented in government.
He also asked the new government to provide free healthcare for kids and seniors and to continue the work on his and the North Side member’s idea of a government discount shop.
Juliana O’Connor-Connolly said she was delighted to see Ezzard Miller in the speaker’s chair and had every confidence that he had already wrapped his head around the new Standing Orders. She said it was ironic that she was now the ‘Mother of the House’ as she had not even intended to be back in parliament. But because so many people had wanted her to run again, she had put off her retirement, she said.
On the government benches, Julie Hunter began by acknowledging and thanking McKeeva Bush, the member she narrowly ousted from office after 40 years as a West Bay representative. She said that during her time serving as the MP, she was committed to preserving Cayman for Caymanians.
Nicholas DaCosta responded to previous comments by the opposition leader that the new NCFC government was a marriage of convenience, saying it was more like an arranged marriage. He said it was “an arrangement for people over politics and better days for Cayman”.
See more charts mapping the election results here.
See all of the short contributions from MPs on CIGTV below.
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Category: Politics
Arrogance brings complacency .
Joey and the PPM got their strategy wrong-again.
Not enough Plan B discussions before the election.
Joey,
Do something for the people! How about you spend the rest of your time campaigning to fix our driver’s licensing system, driver education system, and traffic policing?
Help save a life or two.
Whaaaaa whaaaaa whaaaaa, please someone stick a big pacifier in his mouth, before he throws his toys out of his stroller.
Joey it’s a shame you’re not in government but I’m so happy the chancers, grifters, losers and criminals that make up the rest of ppm aren’t.
Joey Hew, stop being like Trump. You lost twice…shut your mouth and move on…period
The will of the people Joey, is that Deputy Dufus take down the illegal billboards immediately.
The NCFC with the addition of a few more solid members could be in power for the next 10 years.
PPM will need to start over. I doubt they will get young members to join as their brand has been damaged irreparably. Its frightening that the Government that took us through COVID introduced our new Constitution and passed good governance legislation. Some how managed to gain to a reputation of anti Caymanian and aloof.
The will of the people would be to have them all tarred and feathered!
And then keelhauled a few times for good measure.
So when you bribe Isaac and Jay to cross the floor, will that be the will of the people?
After Isaac’s stunt just before the election to get votes by ruining the East End Enviroment, we cannot trust him at all.
He took over Sports Ministry and it is a complete disaster. Ask the Athletes?
Shameful. Isaac is a huge disappointment. I’m sorry the Premier has such a self-serving two faced person – keep a watch, his shannagins with da Lodg boys aint over yet?
Joey, honestly: You said yourself in an interview that the PPM had been in power for 20 years (coalitions and what not). How then, did these islands get into the crappy situation we are in? Be honest, man. The PPM made decisions that benefitted employers (minimum wage); foreign developers (huge hotels and condos) and foreign nationals seeking PR who could buy real estate in a wink. How long did you all think we were going to keep swallowing bile?! We voted PPM out. Accept it and move on.
PS: Kenny, it is not even June and our tourism numbers have almost surpassed 2019’s—bro, why, why did you go crazy spending money the last eight months?!
“Mother of the House”…please spare us… she was only Premiere by default
CNS: The ‘Mother of the House’ or the ‘Father of the House’ is the term given to the person who has been a member of parliament for the longest time. The positions they have held during that time are irrelevant.
I’m sorry CNS but hearing “mother of the House” to her makes me want to vomit but I understand.
That’s the narcissist in her speaking up loudly🫣 she can’t help herself. Hearing her speak gives me the ick!
Whatever makes you sleep at nights.
I agree with Joey Hew the new governmentshould be name disfunional government not coation i hope they fail
You sound as bitter as those few petty Americans that wish to destroy their government and economy, rather than work with the sitting President to the betterment of the people. In both cases, you don’t have to be a fan of the leaders to want to help foster the best for everyone. In other words, pull up your big boy pants and make the best of things for everyone. You will get another chance in four years.
@9:42 You hope the Government Fails? Is this the mentality you have? You realize if the Government fails whatever government is in power is of no benefit to the Cayman people. Is this the type of Donkey thinking that is out there now? Joey and the resy the squad really got unna people fool fool boy
Methinks he doth protest too much. So hush little baby and go sit on your only throne, in your bathroom so Cayman can ‘progress’ into the best it can be.
Joey needs a intro to basic math class because he thinks 5k is more than 10k. this is the guy that wants to run a country?
If they had managed to get in, what would he have done with the Math for the referendum?
Thank goodness he’s on the opposition side.
Let’s move on now…
Joey went to the Saunders school of sums.
1 for you and 5 for me.
That picture of Crying Joey and Spend All The Money Julie behind him really gets the day off the a crappy start!
Starts off with a good laugh!
Start off with a vomit.
Laughter is better exercise for the stomach than stress of vomit, both agree anyway.
Seymour cried. I could only wonder if it was sadness… or fear of promises that cannot be kept.
Seymour is just an emotional guy. He cries quite often.
Does alot of things quite often.
…or fear of personal trainers not been paid. Sell the jewellery wifey.
For goodness sakes Joey didn’t your mama ever tell you that sometime ya all just need to sit down and shut up!
Lolol good laugh to start a Friday.
ppm…forever aloof and out of touch.
If it was not for David and Chris wight Perlina was not getting elected,I saw all the adverts door to door begging votes! Glad you got to meet her but tell me how much times you going see or hear from her again in the next four years.
NEVER!
Perhaps the Wight brothers should run, themselves, next time. They will obviously always be die-hard PPMs, regardless of how much debt the PPM put our country into, leaving our Caymanian children to suffer.
Parliament needs members who are effective in getting needed legislation passed and achieving results.
It would be best for PPM to hang it up at this point. PPM has turned into something worse the the former UDP.
Don’t forget that Kurt Tibbetts (in addition to David and Chris Wight) were pushing hard for Pearlina in GTW.
If not for KT’s coattails, once again, Pearlina would not have been successful, just the same as happened previously with David Wight in GTW and Barbara Connolly in GTS.
No disrespect to Pearlina, but she’s underwhelming and does not connect with the Caymanian electorate standing on her own.
Bet she got a nice brick pave driveway..
brudda u lost get over it
Mr Hew, straight talk here. The ONLY reason PPM, and Saunders, got ANY votes is due to the LARGE sums of Money, Gifts, Fool Hearty Pronises and Fear Mongering that PPM Candidates, and its supporters, were feverishly doing. This is INDISPUTABLE….. CANNOT be DENIED…. Saying this I dare PPM, on a bible in Jesus’s Name, to deny this.
Everybody KNOWS PPM made certain guarantees to certain highly questionable people to be able to do certain things for these persons gain..
Now PPM CANNOT deliver onthe Promises……
So please do CAYMAN a favour, sit down, keep quite, stop being a spoilt brat…..
ah yes, Red Bay Roy is really the will of Red Bay.
More like the PPM machine at work! So glad their strategy still didn’t work for them!
Not a soul in Red Bay know who he is. He didn’t perform well in debate, they come around enticing people with money and favours. At the end of the day, what a mess we would have been in had they taken over the government.
“Vote straight PPM!” “We moving forward with PPM” yeah straight to POVERTY and hold down. Just look at the majority of their grassroots supporters and how they live.
Proud Caymanian that can say – I’m proud of our coalition government of 2025-2029.
2025-2026 more like
I wish Dawn had got in
Taking on Juju Kenneth TooDumb and Saunders lurking in the background lost you the election Joey.
Dear CNS, you’ve missed the figures for the CINP candidate in BTW.
Please edit the graph for complete accuracy.
CNS: Thank you! It’s fixed now.
This is the beginning of the end for the PPM party, good riddance.
Seymour is sucking up the new government to see if he can join them, he is a real weasel and back stabber, only in it for what he can get out of it.
Did you see him crying the day after they got sworn in. 😢 All his promises went up in smoke, obviously. I hope the NCFC does not ask him to join them. BTE will be okay without him.
Well, at least SOMEONE elsedoing the SUCKING now, the other half must have lips likes Angelina Jolie by now…..
AnyHo guess its time for a new personal trainer…..
Joey , you seem to have missed considering that many in the electorate voted in such a way to insure who they didn’t want to get in, that’s right… the PPM.
Perhaps try in this next 4 years to get over yourself . You will find life in Cayman so much more enjoyable.
He needs to hush with his dunce self.
He is very very upset that he cannot be the Premier, papa Dart promised him so many goodies if he had been the Premier and handed the dump project back to Dart on a golden platter. Now it is all gone and poor Joey has to just sit by and watch the others.
Don’t forget all the other fat cat developers that need all the PPM give-a-ways, look at Lacovia and the current CPA chair. Hope they replace this chairman first thing.
The composition of the CPA is only part of the problem. Over the past 20+ years the development cabal has used the UDP/PPM/UMP to modify the Development and Planning Act so that it only works in favour of the cabal and against the interests of ordinary Caymanians. Until that piece of captured legislation has the anti-Caymanian elements excised we are going to continue to have corrupt development.
The current CPA chairman should really be ashamed of himself as the recent approval of the 2 story temporary structure at Sandbar on the waterfront. The Sandbar owner is a personal friend and associate of his yet he pushed that application forward. That should be investigated.
Papa Dart is a billionaire , he not too worried.
It’s his senior executives who use politicians to get things done and approved, who are in scared mode.
Their bonuses are going to get reduced unless they can find another Mac or Kenneth or Joey to fix things for them.
Lolol
yea..you soo smart right..blowing your own horn.come see your qualificatiins.
I was thinking of voting for the PPM candidate in my constituency until Mr. Hew made the decision to allow some of the failures from the previous administration back into the PPM. Mr. Hew also doesn’t seem to understand that voters in the Cayman Islands don’t responds well to the gaslighting. The PPM now needs new leadership that can be trusted and respected.
Weird seeing as the TCCP were the original failed government and then Jay and Isaac were part of the UPM. So they have more people from failed governments than PPM.
PPM *is* a failed government, you dunce. They called an early election so that they could avoid having to remove McKeeva and dissolve their regime (wouldn’t want to be disloyal to the king now, would they?)
Stop being a sore loser, show some class and MAYBE you’ll have a chance in the future, but if term limits come in, which we all hope they do, then good riddance.
He’s annoying AF.
Lolololol, good one!
Seymour, newsflash for you: the majority of Caymanians in Bodden Town (East and West) wanted you and Chris gone but, lacking stronger options, they had to settle. Both of you should consider retirement come 2026. BT voters: start scouting your new candidates from now.
6:08 that is not true about BTE. Seymour cannot be moved because BTE is basically part of Jamaica now and he is just like them in attitudes to women, people less fortunate than himself, ghetto music , drinking etc so it’s like they are back home and vote for him. Don’t know about BTW, maybe it’s the same?
BTW same little Jamaica, but they not so happy clappy as BTE , because their racist chip on shoulder leader has poisoned their spirit.
White people are the enemy and independence soon come…Yes Chris..?
Someone should ask Chris to prove he is actually a CPA or has ever passed the exams in the past but is now not a registered CPA.
Arrogant Jamaicans like Chris attach these titles to themselves believing that qualifications are Just a white man ting to keep them out.
He’s not a CPA, and he’s got away with it because nobody checks these things.
Those two clowns could just retire now and do us all a real big favor. As for the mother of the house, she can retire right now as believe me she would not be missed.
TERM LIMITS?
The problem in BT is that the voters desperately wanted to get rid of their Ford Pintos, only to be told that they had to use the money to buy Chevy Chevettes.
Be graceful in defeat and opposition instead of being a petulant sore loser.
Unfortunately that is not in Joey Who’s DNA! Whining and crying is more his style. But he now has to explain to Big Boss Dart why he can not get all the sweetheart deals.
What he means to say is that new CIG is not the will of the developers or the realtors that backed him.
Joey, accept that the public was fed up of PPM, ESPECIALLY after they, as Opposition, propped-up a lame-duck minority Govt and thus facilitated more wanton waste of public funds in the last few months.
You think we’re all stupid?
Mr Hew, if you’d take time to review the pre-election public sentiment through forums like this one, you would know that the majority of people wanted a CINP/TCCP coalition.
It IS the will of the people. So, sit back and try to be an effective Opposition leader. That’s your job now.
Majority rules.
Joey need go sit down and hush up..KMT!!!
Yes Joey the only coalition government that is legitimate is one that you or your cohort would form as you have done twice in the past, and just as you attempted to do in 2021.
How anyone listens to his bleating is beyond me.
Maybe you should consider why your party has failed to gain a majority of seats much less votes in five elections in a row.
Maybe you should consider why your party is so unpalatable to the majority of Caymanians that even when your party is basically the only show in town such as in the 2021 elections people would still rather vote against you en masse.
The UDP imploded in 2012 leading into the 2013 election and struggled even further in 2017 election leading to their de facto dissolution and the PPM STILL couldn’t manage to get 10 seats in any of those elections.
“Not the will of the people”..??
Ffs Joey, 73% of the people who cast a ballot, voted AGAINST your party.
The will if the people is represented by the government we have.
Get used to it and devote your energy to improving Cayman….don’t worry ….Mr Dart will manage very well without you.
I heard JuJu said that she couldn’t have an “elitist” run Cayman Brac, so that’s why she had to run again?? God forbid that anyone stepped up and actually did something good for Cayman Brac that she couldn’t take credit for! Care to confirm or deny that you made that comment JuJu?
CBE had a good candidate for CBE with Mrs Ruth Bodden, someonevWHO would ACTUALLY care, and do, for the district…. but alas Julianna bought, promised and fearmongered the people and got voted in again. Why ae people so easy to manipulate. They forgot that she, as a supposedly devote christian, lied her ass off when she swore she would not seek reelection then at the last minute decided to run under false pretences….Well now CBE can go seek assistance from Julianna at her house, her family, mother and sisters… but we all know she wont do shit, just as before…. just look at the road crew she CLAIMED she was doing SO much for…. poor people cant even get their hard earned pay now because of her, even after they voted for her….. Take what you get (or not getting) now…..
Well, give us a national vote then. How lessening our vote down to just 1 vote per person was somehow more democratic for the electorate, is beyond me.
They had a referendum and the majority voted no, but of course Alden and the PPM interpreted the numbers in the same manner that Joey is doing today and saddled us with this $hitty OMOV foolishness.
PPM only had one clear election victory in 2005 when they formed the government.
9 PPM candidates were elected and then Mose Kirkconnell joined after the 2005 election.
Since 2005 onward the PPM has always formed a government only through coalitions.
Joey Hew knows this because he was part such post-2005 election coalitions.
But they have won majority of seats every election and have lost through larger coalitions or parties joining forces and due to greed of independents, the same as this election. The only reason they went with CINP/TCCP is because they were offered what PPM were not willing to offer. Everybody privy to this information is well aware. It won’t last long anyway. Andre and Gary won’t be able to reign in certain members and people will be crossing over within a year because they couldn’t get things done.
I genuinely wonder if you know what the word majority means, it appears you do not.
The word you were looking for is plurality, under the Westminster parliamentary system of government a plurality does not guarantee you anything nor does it entitle you to form a government unless you can agree to work with others to make up the numbers. The PPM failed to do so as they did in 2021, its that simple.
PPM maybe would have formed the Govt. but they went for quantity over quality. I and many others supported them until they got desperate and invited the foxes into the henhouse.
Once I saw Seymour and Bryan in the PPM fold, that was it. No support.
Like Jay and Isaac? They were in the same henhouse! People are conveniently forgetting this because they ran as independents.
No,we’re not forgetting. But there is a subtle difference between a post-election ‘alliance’ and a pre-election party membership. Your party members represent you & who you are. Your alliance is a recognition that after an election you have to work with whoever is elected. Some people will disagree (Saunders saying he would only work with PPM, for example) but some % of voters see it that way.
Ant the quantity they chose had a complete lack of Quality.. you really expected votes for a party dominated by Juju, Seymour, Kenneth, Saunders and Mac worshippers..?
And that is when Cayman troubles started, @4:12pm. The US economy crashed shortly after and instead of closing ranks to protect Caymanian employment, land and housing, the PPM used such to raise revenue. Deplorable.
Wonder if Juju will say dozens of times that she NOT running then run again in 2029, can’t believe anything she says.