Voting change ‘one’ step closer

A government motion that represents the first step toward changing the Cayman Islands voting system for the next general election was approved Wednesday evening in a party-line vote of the Legislative Assembly.  

All 12 government members voted in favor of the motion, which requests that Governor Helen Kilpatrick call an Electoral Boundary Commission to redraw voting districts in all three islands with the aim of creating separate single-member constituencies. If lawmakers approve the redistricting effort once the voting map is redrawn, Caymanians will be restricted to casting just one vote in the May 2017 election. 

Premier Alden McLaughlin has estimated that it will take at least three or four months for a boundary commission to do its work. After that, the Legislative Assembly must debate the plan and either approve or reject it. Mr. McLaughlin has said the entire process should be completed by mid-2015.  

“In my mind, it’s time to act,” George Town MLA Roy McTaggart said during Wednesday’s debate on the motion. “It’s time to put away the political wrangling.” 

“It is time for accountable leaders,” said Bodden Town MLA Alva Suckoo. “It is time for people who truly want to answer to the people. Single-member constituencies is one way to ensure that we, as representatives, answer to the people we represent.”  

Two members of the Legislative Assembly, Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush and West Bay MLA Capt. Eugene Ebanks, voted against the motion to establish the boundary commission and create single-member voting districts. West Bay MLA Bernie Bush was not present for the vote.  

“I do not support the move from our voting system that we’ve had since we’ve had representative government,” Mr. Bush said. “This is going to be something that will not help these islands.”  

Independent MLAs from North Side, Ezzard Miller, and from East End, Arden McLean, whose voting districts represent the only single-member constituencies in the Cayman Islands, abstained.  

Mr. McLean had earlier tried to push through amendments to the government motion that sought to set the number of single-member voting districts at 18 and required government to meet a deadline of June 30, 2015, in its efforts to change the voting map. The proposed amendments were voted down. 

“It’s obvious why this [government] motion was put here,” Mr. McLean said. “It’s about me and the member from North Side. The premier has said that I have fears about losing my seat if we amalgamate…East End and North Side.”  

The issue derives from the fact that in order to create single-member districts on Grand Cayman with an equal number of electors, the districts would have to be split into about 1,100 voters apiece. Currently, East End and North Side have roughly 600 each. Also, Cayman Brac, which constitutionally requires two seats in the House, has just 1,000 voters. Splitting Cayman Brac and Little Cayman into two districts would likely result in about 500 voters per district.  

Mr. McLean said the Constitution Order, 2009, requires any Electoral Boundary Commission to “have regard for existing boundaries” in its work. “If the premier and his government are looking to make electors equal in this country, is he proposing to change the constitution, and Cayman Brac only get one [vote] too?”  

Mr. Miller also expressed concern that the government had not expressed certainty in the motion as to how many voting districts the territory would be divided into. He suggested that the Electoral Boundary Commission could redraw the voting map to create 19, 21 or even 25 MLA seats.  

“There is no such proposal in the motion, the resolution speaks not at all to any increase in membership,” Premier McLaughlin said, in response to Mr. Miller’s and Mr. McLean’s concerns. 

Mr. Miller alleged that any boundary commission the government might create would be political in nature, given that the government would practically direct the appointments of two of the three commission members.