Now that Cayman’s election process has been formally triggered with the issuing of writs, the clock is ticking for government to move its referendum plans forward for the 30 April polls.
Elections Supervisor Wesley Howell, speaking with the Cayman Compass on Tuesday, said he and his team are ready to move ahead with their referendum preparations, which will run alongside their general election preparations.
However, he said they are waiting for the legislative process to be completed for the referendums on cruise berthing, decriminalisation of small amounts of marijuana and the national lottery so they can work on what the ballot will look like.
“We don’t have a standing referendum bill or referendum act. So every time that we do a referendum, we need to pass specific legislation. At this time, the legislation has not been passed. Although the motions approving the referendum question topics have been passed, the referendum bill itself isn’t passed,” he said.
In October, Parliament unanimously voted to go ahead with the cruise berthing referendum, which will be held at the same time as the general election next year.
Two additional referendums, on marijuana and the lottery, are also expected to be added to the general election ballot.
No bills have been gazetted, however, with respect to the question for the cruise berthing pier, though a motion on it had already been passed in the House.
A bill has yet to be filed for the national lottery and the decriminalisation of small amounts of ganja.
The Cayman Compass has confirmed that no motions were filed in the Parliament in relation to additional questions for the current sitting of the House nor have any bills been gazetted on those matters.
Issues already approved
Howell said a government motion dealing with the decriminalisation of small amounts of marijuana and establishing a national lottery had been approved in the House in December 2022 as matters of national importance and, therefore, are able to be debated through a public referendum.
He said, however, that bills will have to brought to the House to get questions onto the ballot.
“We would ideally want to have that referendum bill settled before Nomination Day (3 March) because that sort of starts that process of moving forward,” he said.
There have been indications that government may waive the required 28-day consultation period to consider referendum bills.
West Bay South MP André Ebanks said he and his colleagues, MPs Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, Sabrina Turner and Heather Bodden – all of whom quit the coalition government – would not support waiving the consultation period on the referendum nor on amendments to the National Conservation Act.
Deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan, in a comment to the Compass on Ebanks’s position on the referendum, said all the members of Parliament had supported the motion to hold a referendum regarding the port.
“While I respect the need for due process and people should, of course, be given appropriate time for consultation, we have to bear in mind that the subject of the cruise dock has been debated publicly for years now, and we are not asking for decisions to be made but simply for the matter to be put to the people for them decide [in a referendum],” he told the Compass.
He said the real question is whether Ebanks is now planning to withdraw his support after voting in favour of the referendum.
“That, of course, concerns me a lot, because the port is needed. Cruise business is already being impacted and it is clear it will not improve unless we proceed. At the end of the day, I believe he is well aware that there are many Caymanian families depending on us to make the right decisions for their livelihoods,” he said.
Combined ballot
Regarding the actual application of the referendum, Howell said from a logistical and legal perspective, he proposes a “combined ballot paper”.
This means, he said, electors will be voting for candidates on one part of the ballot and attached to it would be the referendum questions.
“That would allow us to utilise the existing staff to run through one combined ballot, whether it be postal ballots or mobile voting or on election day itself,” he said.
Howell said the Elections Office has preemptively planned for dealing with a referendum and an election at the same time by appointing additional deputy returning officers, responsible for overseeing and conducting the 2025 polls.
“They will assist with being able to count in parallel [to candidate votes]. So we’d have concurrent counts going on and, therefore, we can still issue the results early … way before midnight on Election Day,” he said.
He also said both international and domestic independent election observers will be overseeing the election and referendum process on 30 April.
Last week, 19 returning officers and their deputies received their instruments from Governor Jane Owen in a ceremony held at the Elections Office.
The formal issuing of writs of election to the returning officers heralds the start of the election process.
Additional reporting by Simon Boxall.
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