Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly has parked plans to retire and will instead seek re-election on a PPM ticket, she confirmed via voice message at the party’s convention Saturday night.
O’Connor-Connolly will go head-to-head with Cayman Islands National Party leader Dan Scott for the Cayman Brac East seat, in which she is the incumbent.
The news came on a night when the PPM also announced that current Deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan, who returned to the fold earlier in the week, would be the party’s deputy leader.
Former Government television senior producer and presenter Donna Bush was confirmed as the PPM candidate in Savannah, while Delmira Bodden, who has been campaigning unaffiliated in East End, was added to the ticket.
Dwayne Seymour has also returned to the PPM – meaning three of seven members of the minority UPM government are now fully aligned with the official opposition. In fact, there are more government MPs than Opposition MPs now on the party’s platform for the next election.
As it stands, the PPM will contest 13 of the 19 seats. Party chairman Sir Alden McLaughlin issued a ‘clarion call’ to others to help the party fill the remaining slots by 3pm Monday, as he addressed the conference held at the Kimpton Seafire.
McLaughlin’s retirement from parliamentary politics means his long-time advisor Roy Tatum will contest his Red Bay constituency.
Moses Kirkconnell, incumbent PPM MP for Cayman Brac West and Little Cayman, had announced his retirement during the last session of Parliament.
The PPM did not announce a candidate to contest his seat.
Premier’s U-turn confirmed in voice message
O’Connor-Connolly has insisted on multiple occasions that she would also be retiring. But rumours of a U-turn were confirmed on Saturday in a voice note played to the audience over a picture of the premier in PPM colours.
She affirmed her candidacy saying, through her message, she was responding “to the call of my people to run for one more term”.
“Of course, after I’ve reconsidered and reached that decision, it was most easy to decide which party I would be joining, that is the PPM party. Looking forward to being nominated on Monday and hitting the campaign road with the PPM members,” O’Connor-Connolly said in her audio message.
Most of the party’s candidates, including deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan and Minister Dwayne Seymour, were present at the event, which was attended by roughly 250 people.
Incumbent George Town North MP Joey Hew was officially presented as the party’s political leader at the event, following a business meeting of the party’s membership.
Hew told the Compass, following the convention, that the party is in talks with other candidates.
However, he said, “it’s not just about getting representatives in constituencies, but getting representatives, as Sir Alden (McLaughlin) said, that aligns with our vision, with our goals [and] with our morals.”
McLaughlin, in his speech, urged people to “get on the PPM train” and “help us rescue Cayman again”.
In a veiled reference to the Cayman Islands National Party’s line-up of 12 candidates – none of whom have served as MPs previously – he said, “We had the experiment of the independents, now we have the experiment of the inexperienced.”
“We have an election to win and a country to save.”
Joey Hew announced that Bryan, who started his political career with the Progressives but became an MP for the first time as an independent by defeating then PPM Finance Minister Marco Archer in 2017, would be the party’s new deputy leader.
Hew, after former leader Roy McTaggart officially handed over the reins on Saturday, said, “The baton has been passed. It is now our duty to continue to build the party for the benefit of the country.”
Speaking to the announcement of Bryan as the party’s deputy, Hew said, as a group the party decided that they were going to unify George Town “one more time”.
Bryan, he said, was “the right choice for the future of the country” as he has eight years of experience as a legislator and he is also the deputy Premier.
Bryan spoke briefly at the event echoed calls for stability, saying it was “truly an honour to be back home” with the PPM.
He said he was pleased to not only re-join the party that he started politics with, but be part of shaping the future of the country as deputy leader.
“Recognizing over the four years of up and down how important stability is, is what brought me back to the People’s Progressive Movement because they truly have the best track record in respect to stability and continuity, and that’s undisputed. So it was a natural progression. I didn’t see [deputy leader] coming, but I’m happy I made the choice,” Bryan said.
The party honoured their four retiring members; Sir Alden McLaughlin, Barbara Conolly and David Wight with plaques noting their contribution to the PPM.
MP Moses Kirkconnell, who also retired, did not attend the convention as he was off island, Hew said.
Related Videos
