Observers highlight 13 changes to improve elections
(CNS): The immediate need for a new Electoral Boundary Commission, closing the polls at 3:00pm on Election Day and tackling campaign finance are just some of the recommendations made by the domestic observer mission for the April 2025 General Election. The local observers have published their final report, noting more than a dozen changes they believe will improve the current election landscape.
However, parliament doesn’t have a great track record of adopting recommendations made by observers, whether domestic or international, and most, if not all, of their recommendations will likely be ignored.
Many of the recommendations from this latest mission echo those of their predecessors as well as those of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association international missions that have been present for general elections in Cayman for over 15 years.
The report by the local observer team, which was led by Deborah Ebanks, contains few surprises. The first on the list of recommendations was the pressing need for a new boundary commission to address the significant and growing disparity between the number of voters in the constituencies and the inequity this creates. They also recommended more pre-election voter registration drives to encourage more people to join the electoral roll.
The mission said that election legislation should be revised in relation to the qualification of candidates to remove the barrier for non-violent dated convictions and dual nationals. The law should also be changed to address campaign finance, extending the limited period that candidates currently have to report on.
The observers said that they had seen the candidate expense forms before publishing the report, and all 19 elected members had submitted them for the statutory period by the deadline. The details of where the 58 candidates who campaigned in this election obtained funding and how it was spent during the eight weeks from Nomination Day to Election Day are expected to be released by the Elections Office in a few days.
However, the team raised concerns about the limited requirements related to the issue of campaign finance in elections. They said that money spent before Nomination Day should be disclosed, as should the spending by third parties or in-kind contributions, and the law needs to better define treating, spelling out what is and is not acceptable.
During the course of their observation, the local mission said they did not see any evidence of systemic vote buying but observed some excessive treating as well as undue pressure in some communities and from families over who others should vote for.
The mission noted that more than 87% of voters had cast their ballot by 3:00pm, but with referendum as well as election votes to count, the results were delayed. In some cases, election workers were on shift for as long as 24 hours straight. The observers suggested that the polls could close as early as 3pm to give the Election Office more time to count, or alternatively it could introduce shifts.
It’s unlikely that closing down the polls early would be popular, given the broad desire to make voting as accessible as possible to all registered voters, and longer rather than shorter polling hours are generally associated with better turnouts.
Among other points and recommendations made by the mission was the idea that candidates should be banned from polling stations on voting day. They suggested that candidates could use mobile voting, which would prevent the perception of any intimidation or interference. However, this idea is unlikely to be popular with candidates, given the right they all have to see what is happening in polling stations.
Other suggestions may be more welcome, such as tightening up the standards under which polling station staff assist voters, a campaign to update the voter register to ensure addresses are correct, and a review of how postal votes are handled.
The local observers also suggested creating a smaller local observer mission that can begin work much earlier, and can track the adoption of previous recommendations, monitor political activity and help educate the public on their work. That standing mission can then be extended significantly in an election year.
See the full report in the CNS library.
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Category: 2025 General Elections, Elections, Politics
How about we made the remuneration package performance based. Based on actual results, financial constraint, and other targets being met?
Oh that wouldn’t work, because their performance is shockingly bad by all and any targets and achievement levels we could think of.
I wonder when the Governor will insist that the Electoral Boundary Commission meet to plan a review of the boundaries. Mind you our politicians do not want to change it because they comfprtable with it. But how in the world can some constituencies have nearly a 1000 more voters than one next to it?
If non violent dated convictions are a barrier to candidacy, how is Kenny an MP?
In relation to criminal convictions the only convictions that immediately bar you from candidacy are convictions relating to dishonesty OR if you are imprisoned for a period exceeding 12 months in any country for any offence
Neither applies to Kenneth Bryan, his conviction was for a drug offence and he was only given 90 days in prison for that conviction, by our laws he is still legally allowed to stand for office
The candidates shouldn’t be allowed in the polling station on election day. It’s bad enough that the first people voters see as they enter the polling area to vote are the candidates agents, but having the candidates in the polling room is worse.
Michael Myles was in a mobile polling station, knowing it was illegal and Wesley Howell did nothing about it except ask him to leave.
Kenny spent pretty much the whole day in the two GTC polling stations. Zero enforcement, it’s the Cayman way.
You were allowed in on Election Day just not for prolonged periods at a time.
What about fixing election data protection breaches by the officials involved. Why is personal Voter Registration data still on-line for criminals to access?
Wes Howell when will you produce a cabinet paper requesting these changes? It has now been more than 3 election cycles…you keep saying you are working on it.
What exactly is the top-secret information that the voter registry holds that ‘criminals’ are using?
You would find more useful information about the average person on LinkedIn or Facebook than you get from the voter register.
Stop being ridiculous.
Please read the data protection act…to answer your question.
The “right to be forgotten,” also known as the right to erasure, deals with the removal of certain personal information from search engine results when it is deemed irrelevant, outdated, or excessive. This right was established in 2014 by the European Court of Justice, is now codified in Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulations and can be found in the Cayman Islands Data Protection Act.
How can the Premier run around the Globe singing the virtues of doing business in the Cayman Islands when CIG Ministries cannot even follow Cayman law?
No country posts personal information on a website that is accessible to the general public.
Whilst on this subject…. why does CIG permit the general public to access ANY persons birth certificate? This is also a breach of CI Data Protection Act by CIG.
Choose MPs randomly by picking out Caymanians of a hat?
Couldn’t be any worse than the ones we get from voting.
The problem is that the remuneration package attracts people who are in it for the wrong reasons.
What do you suggest they do different about remuneration then?
Other than the 11 that form the government, what were the other 2?
God forbid, civil service workers need to work extra hours for 1 day, every 4 years.
HEY OVER YOURSELVES!
SMH
It’s not just the workers…an observer’s election day work starts when polls open and ends when everyone else’s work does. They are volunteers. Come on. We should not have a process that requires anyone involved in it to be awake for 24 straight hours.
These should be nothing more than local council elections run in conjunction with those taking place in the UK.
new candidates?
Direct rule is really the only option if you want to fix the mess.
Do you trust Starmer and a Labour government to fix anything? I’ve seen what they are doing to the UK so no thank you. I didn’t think it was possible to be worse than the conservatives but I was proven wrong.
That shows how little you know. You’re average , bog standard civil servant in Whitehall could run this place better than ANY Caymanian politician of the last 40 years.
Nobody is calling for direct rule by some moronic politicians. They are calling for Direct Rule by a competent bunch of career civil servants that have spent their life making sure stuff like, you know, abandoned cars, permits etc get done properly, implemented correctly and efficiently without rampant corruption and self interest–which surprisingly is what they spend they day to day jobs overseeing at a Council level, let alone higher up the .gov food chain.
…which is why you left there to come here, obviously.
Like everyone else did. Or did you spurt out of the Ground like one of the Banana Orchids?
Agreed Starmer is destroying England with his left wing BS.
Referring to Keir Starmer as ‘left wing’ as he implements tory policies, sticks to tory fiscal rules and has excised anyone even remotely on the left from Labour is hilarious.
A few weeks ago the guy gave a speech about immigration that could have come straight from the mouth of Enoch Powell, Oswald Mosley or George Wallace.
‘left wing’
Ha
He did that because Labour are losing their seats to Reform. The countries population are sick of the immigration issues destroying the UK and are turning to a far right group as a result. And I don’t blame them. The UK is turning into a third world country and it’s getting worse every day! Visit Bradford for a day and see for yourself.
You can experience direct rule immediately by simply going back home. <3
Close by 3pm WTF ! What kind of foolishness these Foo fool people talking about sounds like somebody spouse need to get home earlier and not be inconvenienced by counting votes my phone camera could prove them wrong about no systemic buying votes and them now soliciting for yet another private/ Government entity to observer elections to do what fleece government coffers. A smaller observer mission to monitor political activity and who will vet this Gestapo unit from political and personal biases ?? Unnah try leave shit alone with Rinky Dink recommendations better try to deal with this civil servants Mafia influencing the vote and this Jamaican style garrison gutter politics that has taken over and corrupted our political process and system don’t see those recommendation anywhere no do we ??