A review of the current makeup of Cayman’s electoral boundaries will commence this month following the appointment of the 2023 Electoral Boundary Commission, Governor Martyn Roper has said.
Roper, in a statement Friday, announced the appointments of chairperson Lisa R. Handley and local attorneys Steve McField and Adriannie Webb, all of whom previously served on the 2015 commission.
Report expected by June
The new commission, he said, is set to begin work on recommendations on the electoral boundaries this month.
“I would like to thank Commission members for doing this review. It is an important part of the Election process and meets our Constitutional requirements,” Roper said.
The 2023 Electoral Boundary Commission is expected to tender its report to the governor and Parliament by June 2023.
“In preparing their report, the Constitution stipulates that Commission members must invite views from members of the public and take account of the Cayman Islands’ natural boundaries and existing electoral districts. They must also ensure: ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ that each constituency contains an equal number of persons qualified to be registered as electors,” he said in the statement.
The Constitution also requires that Cayman Brac and Little Cayman continue to return at least two members to Parliament, he added.
As of 1 Jan. 2023 there are 23,494 registered voters in the Cayman Islands. The Bodden Town East and Bodden West constituencies, with 1,646 and 1,588 voters respectively, are the two largest constituencies.
New commission required by law
Under sections 88 and 89 of the Cayman Islands Constitution Order of 2009, an Electoral Boundary Commission must be appointed within eight years of the submission of the last commission’s report.
The report for the previous Electoral Boundary Commission was delivered some seven years and four months ago, to the then governor and the then Legislative Assembly on 20 August 2015.
Cayman currently votes in 19 single-member districts, and there have been previous calls for changes to the existing boundary lines.
This commission will look at whether changes are needed and recommend what the constituencies should look like.
Back in 2017 a team of Commonwealth elections observers recommended that the Cayman Islands review its electoral boundaries to achieve “greater equality” in voting in the next general election.
“Equal suffrage has not been achieved under the current electoral district boundaries,” the report, published by the six-member observer team, had stated. The observers, from a number of Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean and in Europe, spent a week in Cayman around the time of 24 May 2017 election.
Ahead of that election, Cayman switched to 19 single-member districts, giving each legally registered Caymanian one vote. Previously, Cayman used a multi-member voting system, in which individuals had anywhere from one to six votes, depending on where they lived.
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