7 weeks from election, still no party manifestos

(CNS): It’s less than seven weeks until the 2025 General Election, but none of the three parties hoping to secure a majority government on 30 April have produced a manifesto. Despite calls from the voting public for these documents, the CINP, the TCCP and the PPM have all failed to produce details of their policies and how they plan to resolve the multitude of problems and crises facing the Cayman Islands.

All three parties have similar reasons for waiting to produce a manifesto, but there are also questions about whether they’re even relevant in Cayman’s election landscape.

Manifestos are clearly less relevant for candidates going it alone. They are not in a position to deliver on any campaign promises without any colleagues supporting them in what they say they want to do. Voters often select independent candidates for other reasons and not necessarily their proposed national policies, such as constituency problems or as a vote against an incumbent representative they feel has failed them.

The only manifestos published so far in this election cycle are by independent candidates Rolston Anglin (see here) and Jermaine Ebanks-Hurlston (see here), who are both running for the vacant seat of West Bay North.

Anglin told CNS he believes he can deliver on his manifesto commitments if he is able to join a government. He claimed that the basic policies he is advocating for are sound and would be supported by whoever his government colleagues might be.

Ebanks-Hurlston has also produced a fairly detailed manifesto but, like Anglin, he has not indicated that he has secured the support of any other candidates running in the other 18 seats so that, if elected, he could deliver on his promises.

While the parties have yet to issue their manifestos, most have published documents, websites or flyers offering some idea about their priorities and indications on how they might deliver them, the most detailed so far being the PPM’s website. However, these texts tend to define the broad problems that everyone knows exist but provide few details on how they will tackle these issues.

None of the parties have revealed their specific plans for the most pressing problems, such as how they would deliver a waste-management solution or increase renewable energy, or laid out their positions on the major projects currently on the table, such as the East-West Arterial Road extension or the redevelopment of the general aviation terminal at the Owen Roberts International Airport.

CNS reached out to all three parties about their manifestos, and although all of them plan to publish one in the next few weeks, they have been unclear on the reasons for the delay. A common theme is that the parties are looking to the voters to tell them what they want them to do rather than the other way around.

Historically, policies have not often been the basis on which political parties have been formed in the Cayman Islands. Alliances and teams were the norm for many decades until 2005 when the two formal political parities that emerged in the wake of the 2001 Cabinet coup — the UDP under McKeeva BushMcKeeva Bush (WBW incumbent) is the longest-serving member of parliament (the “Father of the House”), having represented West Bay continuously for three decades. More and the PPM led by Kurt Tibbetts — duked it out on the hustings and both published manifestos in an attempt to differentiate themselves.

The PPM won in 2005 and has fielded a slate of candidates under its banner in every election since. The United Democratic Party won in 2009 but collapsed in 2012 following Bush’s arrest on charges of abuse of office. Even though he was eventually acquitted, the party never re-emerged, though many of its members have continued in local politics, often as independents.

There are currently three former UDP members running on the PPM ticket: 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, Dwayne Seymour and Pearlina McGaw Lumsden. Meanwhile, Bush and former UDP members Anglin and Chris Saunders are running as independent candidates.

Robert Bodden, who is contesting this election with The Caymanian Community Party, campaigned for office with Bush in the short-lived rehash of the UDP, the Cayman Democratic Party, in 2017.

With parties and alliances largely dependent on personalities, aligned adherence to a particular policy agenda has not often played a part in election campaigns here, and the manifestos are more akin to a wish list rather than a plan for governance.

A spokesperson for the CINP told CNS that the party has been approaching the manifesto process differently.

“Instead of a few bigwigs sitting in a vault dreaming up pie in the sky ‘solutions’, the manifesto is being built through active conversations with voters and stakeholders in various industry sectors to identify the pain points,” a party surrogate said.

“CINP has a brains trust in the background, talking to the right people, creating work streams for each of the core issues which include the candidates who have experience in those areas, people in the public and private sector who live and experience it every day.”

This was described as a deliberate and thoughtful process that takes time. “It isn’t something you can or should just confine to a paragraph as a band-aid fix. We’ve seen manifestos over the years that say all the right things, but don’t actually do anything,” the spokesperson added.

The Progressives are also still working on their manifesto, which will be officially launched in three weeks, just three and a half weeks or so before the election. Kenneth Bryan, the PPM’s new deputy leader and candidate for George Town Central, said the party would release its manifesto at Compass Green on Saturday, 5 April, and the public would be able to see how “we’re going to make Cayman the best country in the world”.

Bryan said he joined the last government, made up of people with “different political ideas”, in 2021 because he hoped it would work but the failure to align and share common platforms was part of its downfall.

“While we tried our absolute best, the reality is our government was pulling in many different directions and we could not function appropriately,” Bryan said at the PPM campaign launch last weekend

There is now a push for parties with a policy platform but publishing it is still not something the parties are rushing to produce on paper.

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.

Tags: CINP, Featured, Jermaine Ebanks-Hurlston, manifestos, PPM, Rolston Anglin, TCCP

Category: Election News