Elections Office refers complaints to cops
(CNS): The supervisor of elections has confirmed that he has referred a number of complaints relating to the campaign to the police, explaining that they are the agency tasked with investigating public concerns about the election. Wesley Howell told CNS that he is not able to comment on the specifics of any investigations but that people are more “politically active on social media and blogs than in previous elections”.
It is no secret that allegations of vote buying have been made more publicly and directly this time around and in some cases the inducements to vote have been considerably less concealed.
The Elections Office is dealing with a number of complaints and allegations regarding corruption and fighting dirty, as well as bullying and even lying by politicians.
The complaints range from candidates and their agents engaged in serious criminal activity, such as giving gifts or cash directly in exchange for votes, to what some could argue are policy positions, such as the blatant inducement from the hustings by outgoing premier, Alden McLaughlin
Alden McLaughlin (PPM): Red Bay MP, Premier, Minister of International Trade, Investment, Aviation and Maritime Affairs (MITIAMA). Biography: McLaughlin has been a member of the... More, when he promised to increase the government stipend for tourism workers if his team is re-elected.
While any candidate can make such a promise, when it comes from the leader of the current government it carries more weight and can be seen as pushing the boundaries. But it is also no different from any electioneering that involves promises of tax breaks for the rich or increases to social welfare for the poor.
Drawing the line between direct vote buying and policy inducement can be a fine line to navigate, and despite the concerns raised by some voters about McLaughlin’s statement, which might look like corrupt politics, it certainly falls short of criminal corruption.
But with political candidates fighting even dirtier on social media on the 2021 campaign trail, voters themselves are also fighting back and challenging politicians who are directly lying to the electorate as another inducement to vote for them. Unfortunately, dishonesty among politicians is a fact of life, the currency of all campaigns, and is unlikely to land any of them behind bars.
The elections office is doing its best to encourage honesty and integrity among the fifty contenders for 2021 and has partnered with the Anti-Corruption Commission on a campaign for clean General Elections. A group of local domestic independent observers has also been appointed by the governor to help make it a fair and clean fight.
However, a much more engaged social network savvy electorate this time around is also helping to call politicians out directly when they are being dishonest or potentially corrupt, which in the end could be much more effective in leading to the punishment at the ballot box against those who have engaged in the dirtier political tactics.
Category: Election News
CNS, can you please ask the DPP head (and maybe cc the Governor) when the public should expect these charges to be brought? 9 days to go and all…those offering money and gifts should be urgently arrested, DQ’d from 2021 race, and charged as a highest DPP priority given the timeline, public interest, and so called international observer supervision of the process. That is, if there is to be any credibility to this oversight.
If the complaints are dealt with in the same fashion as the alleged curfew breakers, we won’t know the results until the 2025 election.
It was the Italian social critic, activist and philosopher Antonio Gramsci who penned these now famous lines : “The old world is dying ,a new one is struggling to be born. Now is the time for monsters”.
I have called this election “a battle for the soul of the Cayman Islands”. This battle is being fought between the rational forces who want a prosperity which is lasting and beneficial to all, respect for diversity among Caymanians and residents ,affordable healthcare , effective education and social services ,transparency and decorum from our representatives and an end to corruption, to express but a sample of the comments on social media.
The forces arrayed are those of the ‘old guard ‘ politicians who seem unable to change. On the other side are the voices of reason , fairness ,concern and parity. These voices are predominantly( although not exclusively ) younger, more educated and more prone to concern with the environment , infrastructure ,human capital ,transparency and the general good.
Indeed the battle is so intense and the centrifugal pressures brought to bear on the old system that it seems ‘the rule book has been dashed away ‘. Replacing it are promises of increased stipends , continued uncontrolled development , more roads , a burgeoning population and ever louder cries of ‘corruption ‘
The time has come for Caymanians to decide how they will navigate the remaining years of the twenty-first century . Will it be with the voices advocating temperance , frugality, charity and the general good ? Or ,will it be “the time of monsters ” comprising corruption ego, selfishness destruction of the environment cronyism and nepotism?
Those who have a vote have a choice . Is your vote not worth more than a $50.00 food voucher or the promise of an increased stipend? And most importantly , what about your progeny?
VOTE WISELY CAYMAN !
I agree that all candidates make promises about tax cuts etc, but in the particular case it is focussed on a particular set of voters. Promising reward for a vote. Why was the stipend not increased earlier? The circumstances were no different. It is because politicians know that right now it can serve a purpose to them, not just the people they are giving it to, right now this promise has more power.
Promising cash in exchange for votes, is vote buying (even if you went to Law school). Giving away cashable in kind treats for votes is also illegal at any time (even if already wearing an ankle bracelet for concurrent criminal sentences). There is no “open pre-season” for illegal bribery and corruption. The Elections Law caps total candidate campaign spending from Nomination Day. Campaign spending isn’t the cash limit to be paid-out in direct voter bribes. Our politicians and the so-called supervisory gatekeepers, don’t even understand the very words of governance written in our Gazetted laws, and we would want to re-install these people in the very House where new laws are decided?!? Madness.
Monthly stipend for un-employed tourism workers was already increased from $1,000 to $1,500. Most, if not all promises from candidates require spending of public funds. Some people are just complaining because their candidate did not think of it first. The difference is that the Progressives actually know how to generate the revenue to fund such programs, whereas the others only have lofty ideas on how to spend it. If they get control I predict it will be all gone within the first couple of years or less with little lasting benefit to show for it.