Premier Wayne Panton made overtures to the Progressives about a plan to abandon the PACT coalition and form a new government with them, the Opposition claimed Friday.
The Progressives assert they have been approached, on numerous occasions, by multiple different members of government with various plans to form a new administration.
The prime mover in many of these discussions, according to former Premier Alden McLaughlin, was Dwayne Seymour.
He said it was a “delicious irony” that the former Health Minister had ended up bringing a motion of confidence in PACT after the closed-door conversations that had taken place.
McLaughlin also claimed that Panton himself had approached the Progressives’ leader Roy McTaggart with a plan to form a government.
But he said this had been a “non-starter” because of Panton’s desire to remain as Premier.
Panton was not immediately available to challenge those claims, made at a press briefing on Friday and put to him by the Compass. Seymour said he did not wish to comment at this stage but in his speech to Parliament earlier in the day he did appear to alluded to “clandestine” talks with the Progressives.
Whatever divisions may exist or have existed within PACT appeared to have been put aside by Friday, however, with the group heading off the Opposition‘s lack of confidence motion and unanimously approving a vote of confidence in themselves.
The Progressives boycotted the session, holding their press conference simultaneously and giving an account of the behind-the-scenes negotiations that have been taking place.
Former Premier McLaughlin said, “The whole country knows there has been great dissension, division and lack of cohesion in policies ever since this government took office.
“This is the third serious challenge that Premier Panton has had to keep his government together.
“Some of his Members, including some of his ministers, have made no secret of their lack of support for him as leader.”
Both McLaughlin and the Party’s Deputy Leader Joey Hew indicated they believed, when they brought the motion of no-confidence in PACT, that it had every chance of success.
Hew said, “We would not have brought that motion had we not had reason to, had we not been encouraged to, had we not had concerns that nothing was happening for our country.”
They acknowledged, however, that the challenge had floundered.
McLaughlin suggested cryptically that there had been “significant intervention by certain people to keep PACT intact”.
He did not give details but claimed he recognised the “signs of somebody else moving the pawns on the chess board”.
Hew accepted that the Progressives’ motion had effectively been defeated before it got to the House.
But, he said, if adversity helped PACT forge a more effective government, he would be happy.
“If this motion of no-confidence in PACT brings them together, we will have achieved what we set out to do. We want to see the country moving forward, work being done, people being helped.”
‘Speaker should go now’
The Progressives insist the failed attempt to oust PACT had no connection to their decision to boycott Parliament on Friday.
Instead, that decision was based on the continuation of McKeeva Bush in the Speaker’s Chair until 30 November and, what they see as, an erroneous and politically-motivated decision from his deputy, Katherine Ebanks-Wilks, to refuse permission for their motion of no-confidence in Bush to be debated.
Ebanks-Wilks has stated the motion was not filed within the required timeframe.
McTaggart confirmed the Opposition would not sit in the Chamber while Bush remained in the Speaker’s Chair.
He said the “refusal of a valid motion was an inexcusable violation of the democratic principles of Parliament” that stifled the voice of the Opposition.
Asked whether he thought it right that his Party’s stance would mean a missed opportunity to debate significant legislation, including a bill to reform social assistance on the table for next week, he said it would be a disservice to the people of Cayman for them to support Bush staying on as Speaker.
Saunders: ‘Go to work’
Deputy Premier Chris Saunders in a brief speech to the House on Friday lambasted the Opposition for their non-attendance, saying hard-working people went to work every day despite challenges.
“Having a problem or an issue with somebody is no reason not to show up to work,” he said.
“Caymanian people go to work. That is what we do.”
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