The legal framework to pave the way for Cayman’s vote on a national lottery system and the decriminalisation of small quantities of marijuana is expected to head to Parliament in the first quarter of this year.
Acting Attorney General Reshma Sharma announced this in her address at last week’s Grand Court opening.
Sharma, in giving her round-up of legislation that moved forward at the last parliamentary session held in December, said that Parliament had approved the holding of “the government-initiated referendum on the introduction of a national lottery, which will allow for the regulation control of an alternative activity and the decriminalization of cannabis”.
The referendum bill for this, she said, is expected to come before Parliament in the first quarter of this year.
That bill will set out the specific questions that would be put to the electorate in the referendum.
The MPs would then vote on that bill, which would authorise the referendum. It will also set the date for the referendum and trigger Elections Office operations to prepare for holding a vote.
No government plans have been shared on how the referendum campaign will be rolled out, but at least one legislator, Financial Services Minister and West Bay South MP André Ebanks, has posted a save-the-date notice for a public meeting on Thursday, 2 Feb. at 7pm at the John Gray Memorial Church Hall.
In December, when Premier Wayne Panton brought the motion to the House for a referendum, he said it was expected to cost $1.1 million, but it was necessary so that the people of Cayman could vote to decide on each of the issues.
The motion was passed with 16 votes in favour, one absentee, and one abstention.
The last referendum that was considered in Cayman was people-initiated and sought to hold a vote on the George Town cruise port, which the Progressives-led government had supported.
A public petition garnered enough signatures to trigger a people-initiated referendum on the issue, though that was later dropped as the COVID-19 pandemic took precedence and then Premier Alden McLaughlin’s government abandoned the proposed project.
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I hope that other important topics, such as: a proper national health insurance scheme for Caymanians (who are now uninsured after they retire or cannot afford health insurance coverage), a proper environmental and beach erosion remediation plan, and a proper Transportation plan, gets as much attention and priority as these marijuana and lottery initiatives.