‘I’ll give it my best shot’ premier tells PPM supporters
Juliana O'Connor-Connolly (CBE incumbent) is running with the PPM. She is the current premier and has been minister of education since May 2017. More(CNS): The outgoing premier of the Cayman Islands, who had previously said she would not contest this upcoming election, promised the Progressives party faithful on Saturday night that she would “give it my best shot” after reconsidering her retirement last week. Crediting God’s plan and securing her mother’s blessing to run one more time, Juliana O’Connor-ConnollyJuliana O'Connor-Connolly (CBE incumbent) is running with the PPM. She is the current premier and has been minister of education since May 2017. More said she “had run the numbers” and appeared confident that she would retain her seat in Cayman Brac East.
At the PPM campaign launch, she spoke briefly about the U-turn she made on her previous decision to step down from the hustings, saying that this was a very important election, and for love of country she had returned to the PPM.
O’Connor-Connolly, who has represented the Sister Islands continuously since 1996, is running against CINP Leader Dan Scott
Dan Scott (CBE candidate) is the leader of the Cayman Islands National Party. He was EY regional manager until his retirement in June 2023. More and three other independents in a five-way race, chasing a maximum of 523 votes. She secured 266 votes in 2021, well over 70% in a head-to-head race against Elvis McKeever. If she gets at least the same number in this election, it will be more than enough to secure the seat.
Scott, who has been working on the creation of this new political party for about two years, had, like everyone else, expected O’Connor-Connolly to be vacating the seat. However, she was urged to run again by her Cabinet colleagues, Dwayne Seymour and Kenneth Bryan, and her former party colleague Joey Hew
Joey Hew (GTN incumbent) is the leader of the PPM (aka Progressives). He served as opposition leader from October 2024 until the dissolution of parliament. More, who all saw her addition to the campaign as a way to weaken the CINP, which is offering something completely new to voters.
While the Progressives have been very direct in their criticisms of Scott and his party, in particular their lack of political experience, the PPM have themselves struggled to field a slate of experienced candidates after four of their MPs stepped down from politics this election.
Having recruited Seymour and Bryan, adding O’Connor-Connolly was seen as a way to block the CINP leader from entering parliament, boost their own chances of winning the election, and retain some of that lost political experience among their slate of candidates to secure enough seats to form a Progressives-led government.
However, O’Connor-Connolly kept everyone waiting. She said that when she came back from the CARICOM conference last week, her phone lit up with people calling and urging her to get back in the political fray. Less than 48 hours before Nomination Day, she finally announced that she was going to stand after all.
With her retirement always in question, the speculation that she would decide to run again had been mounting for several weeks, and Scott recently told CNS that he welcomed the idea that Juliana O’Connor-Connolly would be joining him on the campaign trail. A defeat for either candidate would have significant ramifications for both the PPM and the CINP.
Scott’s defeat would leave the successful CINP candidates without a leader while O’Connor-Connolly’s defeat could seriously undermine the chances of the PPM securing a majority and forming a government without the need for horse-trading.
Check out the CNS Election Section interactive map to see who is running in each constituency.
See the list of candidates and their party affiliations here.
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Category: Election News
Change writes: Every constituency has the same issue when their MP becomes a minister. It is not that they stop caring about their area, but Cabinet members have no choice but to tackle issues at national level, and that takes budget, meetings, reports, travel, conference calls, sitting with lawyers to streamline bills and laws — all […]
God’s personal representative on the Brac is a CLOSE ALLY of Mac….?? What Devilry is this. ?
She calls God’s name when it suits her, and back room deals with the devil to feed her greed.
She’s a Judas and the female version of Mac, and they’re also very close allies. Please vote her out for good and remember Vote No to the cruise terminal.
Like Judas, self serving pursuit of the 30 pieces of silver.
Mac invited Kenneth to be guest speaker at his WBW meeting..
Vote PPM and get Mac as a part of the package..
Another Juju, Dumdum, Kenneth, Saunders government directed by Mac will finish off any hopes of a return to an honest and stable administration.
Vote PPM and that’s who we’re going to suffer.
Will PPM support legalisation of abortion?
All parties will, if that is what the people want, okay?
Yes, subject to a 12 month wait.
Her best isn’t good enough.
Her best effort is inferior to mine even when I’m sick in bed with Covid and wearing a blindfold.
In the world of chemistry, the unit of measurement PPM (parts per million) is used to quantify the amount of a substance in a mixture, typically very small amounts.
The political party with the same name should rightly garner similarly a very small fraction of the total vote to be true to it’s real meaning and rather vile make up.
For these islands to begin to become sustainable for everyone it is imperative that this political party be reduced to PPM or better still, cease to exist!
“Mirror mirror on the wall…”
Who is scariest of them all.?
Saunders.
Oh no, with what we already seen from her, I don’t want to see her best yet.
The best thing the PPM could do for this country is dissolve their self-serving alliance, point the fingers at the corrupt businesses and individuals who have been directly influencing their destructive policies and spend their time in prison seriously contemplating the damage they have already done to this country.
This person has been in government with one group or another since 1996. Cayman Brac, ask yourselves how is the employment situation for you all? Are your people between 18 and 26 getting jobs that pay them a reasonable salary? Will you all be able to pay the debt that a $100 million school will bring — can your children and grandchildren afford to repay such a debt? How is the mental health situation? The alcohol/drug addiction situation. Do not settle. Vote for change.
Those that work for government may well be in favour of the status quo. The rest are struggling, and hoping to not go underwater.
She has consistently changed sides of the aisle to ensure she is on the governing side. And on two occasions, joined in pushing the Premier under a bus only to secure the Premiership for herself. Loyalty – to herself.
Duh…God told her to, and who are we to argue against her version of God’s will.?
Just give her time, she’ll do it to Joey.
The PPM is a cesspool of corruption, conflicts of interest, and political cockroaches, that will do anything or align with anyone to retain power, including selling your birth right. They took back Kenneth after dragging him through the streets! Choose wisely!
Will JuJu’s best shot include building a high school on Little Cayman?
But first, housing to accommodate the builders, and then more housing to accommodate the families who will move to LC so their children can attend the school.
… and if so, the primary construction company will be Caymanian owned, but none, not one, of the employees.
And that still won’t be remotely close to good enough.
Please don’t bother.
Vote the PPM OUT!!!
To voters 40 and younger and their parents: In one way or another, the PPM has been in power since the late 90s. Let’s see what happened since:
– Cheap labor;
– Caymanian unemployment;
– Public education has not caught up to the 21st Century
– The land and housing crisis;
– The cement landscape;
– The homeless crisis;
– The rampant increasing of the health care budget line;
– The post-retirement expense not reflected in the government’s Balance Sheet;
– College graduates returning home who cannot find work in their field with reasonable remuneration
Whether it was the PACT or any other group, they would have found those issues brewing when taking office in 2021 because they started long before under the PPM, and continued to grow into the huge issues they are today. The truth is that the PPM has not been a majority since 2013 — call it coalition government or government of national unity.
People joined them and left once they realized they were not as clean as they touted themselves to be (think Connolly, Archer and Panton). Why did they leave? These are all professional, successful, Caymanians. Why did they leave the PPM, then?
Some people do not look at the budget or at national problems. They vote red because that is all they have ever done. Of they vote for someone because that candidate gave them CUC vouchers or a Foster’s card or helped them fill out a form or made a call to get their roof fixed; but if you are older than 50, you know it goes beyond that. Vote sensibly and become part of the solution.
PPM only had a true majority between 2005 to 2009 (when they had 10 MLAs).
In 2005, PPM ran 9, who all got elected, and then Moses K joined the party (after being elected as an independent).
The only true majority that the PPM had was when the Caymanian people were outraged at the UDP’s 3,000 status grants and MacKeeva’s blatant corruption.
As it turns out, because of PPM policy and their changes to legislation, there are now far more than 3,000 people that have been granted Caymanian status since the early 2000s.
PPM have done worse damage to the Cayman Islands than MacKeeva did, which is very difficult to comprehend how devastating this is.
Over the last 2025 years, there has not been one government that has done the right thing for Caymanians.
JOCC: The toilette that keeps overflowing with feces.
And one who just won’t flush away .
We should be above such nasty comments. You don’t like her politics, talk about that. This kind of lowbrow comment should be beneath us all, even for Mac, and that’s saying a lot.
What has Caymanian children got under her leadership of education? One word, feces! The comment is about her politics not her on a personal level. If you do crap as a leader, you deserve to get called out.
Please… save us the pity party.
The math is not hard, what does it cost to secure 260 votes, how many fridges or turkeys or paved driveways, cheapest seat in Cayman!
Unfortunately – for his electoral chances – Dan Scott is honest.
hahahahaha
Absolute charlatan. That sum’s her up completely.
Wise up Caymanians. DO NOT vote for any ppm
A vote for any ppm or affiliates is a death sentence for our country.
Ppm are most hypocritical group ever. They need to all be voted out including the 3 power hungry deceitful new/old ones
This is another argument for an urgent People-Initiated Referendum to bring about national elections.
People – only vote for PPM candidates if you want the nightmare scenario of Kenny, Dum-Dum, Saunders, Mac, Jay (and Joey at least during the few months before the coup) controlling this country for the next 4 years.
How about barring convicted criminals from handling money, directing policy, and shaping laws?! Firing the Deputy Governor for failing to adhere to Nolan Principles on delivering complying auditable civil service accounts? How about ripping up the illegal activity indemnities for Cabinet members and other MPs, restoring all the SIPL disclosure that should also be updated in real time and published online. Then there’s the missing commission to audit duty waivers and investigate conditional land transfer deals of hundreds of acres of crown assets to developers where conditions weren’t honored. There’s years of corruption and loss to reconcile.
Add making those convicted of Deception ineligible for government consultancy contracts.
With the people responsible for pretty much everything that has gone wrong in Cayman over the past 10 years claiming membership in the same party at least it is easy to recognise which candidates to vote against.
How are PPM responsible for PACT running the country into the ground and leaving us with a broken government? And now the same group of clowns are banding back together to try and do it again labelled as the TCCP.
Last election TCCP was Wayne, Andre, Kathy, Sabrina and Heather. The rest that made up the then Government were the fools who drove the country into the ground. Most of which are now aligned with the PPM. The people calling Andre and team quitters are the same ones who support the backdoor deals and corruption. If they did not leave, they would not be able to tell the public what was really going on due to collective responsibility. Remember when Winston Connolly ran for hills after his first term in Government? Anyone ever wondered why?
How do you just make this shit up?
Research collective responsibility, then get back to us. The only place feces fill up, is your head.
The PPM are the authors of our crippling territorial debt (John Gray still not finished), not least of which, hiding $2bln in maturing CIG liabilities from the Balance Sheet (and FCO), underwriters of years of missing civil service accounting, willing coordinators of corrupt backroom deals with developer special interests, untracked duty waivers, multi-decade government tax gifts, unhonored conditional land transfers, and continuous negative opinions from the OAG. Julianna as Premier and leader of UPM tabled a $150mln budget in Dec 2023 that the hansard recalls the country couldn’t afford, including a park nobody asked for, and a school and event center on the bluff in the Brac for no students or guests. Read all that again, and fact check it.
PPM will add $450Million for cruise piers,
$200Million for a new prison we don’t need,
$10Million at least for cost overruns for Kenny’s ego projects,
$44Million for Kenny’s private jet terminal,
and finally , they will add Bankruptcy.
Don’t try that, 7:39am. Neither the PACT or any other group could have corrected in four years, all the DUNG the PPM created since 2013. To get us out of the bucket of s$** this group created will take the elected candidates, the civil service, and the voters in the street working together and brainstorming for practical solutions that can be implemented in the short, medium and long-term. If you cannot see it and you want to vote for them, it is entirely your right, but please do not bash others for choosing differently.
Agreed, so long as it’s not PPM.