Lawmakers voted in favour of a bill Thursday to hold a referendum in July to determine if the Cayman Islands will elect its politicians through a one person, one vote and single-member constituencies system.
The Referendum [Single Member Constituencies] Bill, 2012, was approved by a split vote of 8-3 in the Legislative Assembly.
All government ministers and backbenchers voted for the referendum bill, apart from Deputy Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, the Cayman Brac and Little Cayman representative, who said the majority of her constituents were opposed to dividing Cayman Brac into two separate voting districts.
On the opposition benches, Leader of the Opposition Alden McLaughlin and Bodden Town MLA Anthony Eden voted against the referendum bill. MLAs Kurt Tibbetts, Moses Kirkconnell, Arden McLean and Ezzard Miller were absent for the vote Thursday night.
Some amendments were made to the referendum bill, including making referendum day of 18 July a public holiday, making the outcome of the vote binding and arrangements for the appointment of election officers and observers at polling stations. But the question to be put to the voters remained as it was originally announced by Premier McKeeva Bush last month. The referendum question is: “Do you support an electoral system of single-member constituencies with each elector being entitled to cast only one vote?”
The referendum must be passed by more than 50 per cent of Cayman’s total electorate and not just by a majority of those who vote in the referendum. Opposition members argued that 50 per cent plus one of voters who showed up to the polls on 18 July should be the threshold, but the government did not assent.
Government opposes referendum
Premier Bush urged voters to vote no on the upcoming one person, one vote referendum in a Legislative Assembly debate Thursday, saying changing the existing voting system will lead to “garrison communities” and widespread division throughout Cayman.
“In a constituency like George Town, it’s going to divide people, it’s going to divide nationalities … Don’t fool yourselves that West Bay North West, which has Logwoods in it, is not going to be different from the other section that has Birch Tree Hill in it … Don’t think the area of South Sound and the area of Windsor Park and the area of central George Town and the area of the Swamp is not going to be different,” Mr. Bush said.
The premier said introducing a new voting system of one person, one vote and single-member constituencies would mean a “steep learning curve” for Cayman’s electorate, which he said would be “fraught with difficulties”. He said he did not know why voters would opt to have one representative when they could have four, as is the current arrangement in Mr. Bush’s constituency of West Bay.
In his speech to introduce the bill, Mr. Bush said if the referendum question passed, it would be implemented in time for the May 2013 general election.
Opposition members called for an amendment to be made to the bill to include the premier’s assurance that, if the majority of the electorate voted in favour of the referendum, the new voting system would be in place before the election next May, but the government members voted against including that, or a number of other suggested amendments from the opposition, in the bill’s clauses.
Unprecedented
Leader of the Opposition Mr. McLaughlin said it was unprecedented for a government to oppose a referendum question which it initiated.
Echoing earlier accusations that the government had hijacked plans for a people’s initiated referendum, Mr. McLaughlin said the government was “not entitled … to take the people’s initiative, take the people’s question, which the people want answered, make it their own, draft up a bill which has all sorts of provisions which are going to make it incredibly difficult for the question to get an affirmative answer, take the state’s resources, use the office of the premier, make national radio and television addresses telling people what is wrong with single-member constituencies and what’s wrong with one man, one vote and how it will be disastrous in consequences for the Cayman Islands.”
Legal challenge
Mr. McLaughlin warned of a potential legal challenge to the referendum, based on the registration of voters. He said he knew of a number of people with Caymanian status who were not yet naturalised who had tried to register as electors, as they have the right to do under the Constitution, but had not been allowed to do so.
Only the 15,136 people who have registered to vote by 1 April this year will be able to vote in the referendum.
“We are satisfied that persons who were entitled to vote or be registered to vote have not been allowed … to be registered to vote under the current system. We shall have to decide in due course whether we will challenge it down the road,” Mr. McLaughlin said.
Speaker of the House Mary Lawrence gave permission for a special meeting to be held to debate the bill after the Legislative Assembly had been officially adjourned because it as a matter of public interest.
The Legislative Assembly is scheduled to meet again on Wednesday, 23 May.
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