Topic: Alva Suckoo

Cayman Islands lawmakers approved legislation Wednesday that will register and regulate nonprofit organizations, in a bid to prevent such groups potentially being used as cover for illegal activities such as money laundering or terrorist financing. Financial Services Minister Wayne Panton said there were no instances reported locally in which charities were used to such an end.

Four Cayman Islands MLAs resigned Wednesday from the legislative committee that oversees the Complaints Commissioner’s Office in protest of the government’s plan to combine that office with other government watchdog entities. North Side independent MLA Ezzard Miller confirmed he had sent his resignation to the Speaker of the House on Wednesday.

Cayman Islands lawmakers are set to review and approve an unprecedented number of bills in the Legislative Assembly meeting that begins Tuesday, some of which involve complex, long-standing issues that have been before parliament for more than a decade.

Bodden Town MLA Alva Suckoo said legislation proposed to regulate the country’s charitable organizations is going to be a “disaster.” Mr. Suckoo is correct.

Legislation that would require any charitable organization taking in more than $250,000 per year to register with the government will be a “disaster,” local residents were told during a public meeting in East End district Monday night.

The five independent members of the Legislative Assembly will begin hosting a series oftown hall-style meetings this week aimed at bringing voters up to speed on a number of issues parliament will consider when it meets next month.

A legislative motion seeking support for a referendum on the issue of same-sex marriages prior to the May 2017 general election has been accepted by the Cayman Islands Speaker of the House and could be heard on the Legislative Assembly floor as early as next month.

Warning independent Cayman Islands lawmakers not to take local voters “for fools,” Premier Alden McLaughlin directed verbal barbs Friday at two Legislative Assembly members who left his government backbench in late 2015 and early 2016.

Although Premier Alden McLaughlin has not officially called for early elections, the Cayman Islands governor’s office has confirmed that it will give “great weight” to such a request if the premier resolves to take such a step.

The formation of a coalition among Cayman’s disparate political opposition groups seems a remote possibility at this stage, Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush said this week.

With just nine members on the ruling government bench, the Progressives-led coalition was left to consider this week whether it would seek to muddle through the next 14 months via the slimmest of majorities or call for elections ahead of the usual May 2017 date.

School House Sand left their competitors in the dust as they raced to the finish line at Bodden Town Primary School Sports Day at...