Archive for July, 2012

Elections officials happy to help

(CNS): Anyone who needs help on Referendum Day next Wednesday will be able to ask staff from the Elections Office, who will be posted outside all polling stations. Officers will be happy to answer any questions that voters will have about the process. Deputy Supervisor of Elections Colford Scott said anyone needing assistance can approach Elections Office staff at the tents at the entrance of the stations in the districts. Workers are clearly identified by official picture IDs issued by the Elections Office and white polo shirts marked “Elections Office Elections Officer” or “Elections Office Referendum”, surrounding the Cayman Islands crest. 

Scott said that Elections Office workers have been given an official register of electors and their respective polling divisions and are equipped to guide voters on where to vote and other voting-related issues.

Polling stations open at 7am Wednesday and stay open throughout the day, which is a public holiday, until 6pm in the evening. The count is expected to start around 7pm.

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Debate rages at 11th hour

(CNS):  Less than one week before voters will go to the polls to decide on how they will vote at the next general election, members of the UDP government were themselves debating the pros and cons of the existing multi-member system with the idea of a national vote or other methods. As the OMOV campaigners focused entirely on the equality and accountability of one man, one vote during an open public debate at the Harquail Theatre, Education Minister Rolston Anglin said that the country needed far more discussion about what was the most suitable voting system for Cayman, while his colleague Ellio Solomon argued for a national poll.

As the indecision in the United Democratic Party ranks became apparent, local attorney Wayne Panton, North Side MLA Ezzard Miller and Chamber of Commerce President David Kirkaldy were solid in their support for equality in the voting system. Panton, who will run as a PPM candidate in the next elections, said that the Caymanian people would see on Referendum Day the need to vote for OMOV as they would recognise that all Caymanians are equal and that everyone should have one vote and equal representation.

Illustrating the debate still raging in the UDP and in contrast to the premier’s position of retaining the status quo of multi-member constituencies, backbench MLA Ellio Solomon made it clear that he supported a nationalpoll. He appeared to have some support from Anglin, his front bench colleague, whose position was that more debate was needed. He said the goal of any election system should be for candidates to attract the broadest possible support from the electorate in order to be returned rather than less, as he claimed would be the case with single member constituencies.

In a debate that could have continued into the early hours, the five panel members at the Generation Now event, which took place on Thursday evening and was broadcast on Radio Cayman, saw Miller, Panton and Kirkaldy unified on the position that one man, one vote and single member constituencies would give Cayman a more equitable and democratic system with more accountable representation.

Meanwhile, the two UDP candidates, while arguing against one man, one vote and single member constituencies, were not wholeheartedly supporting the status quo and made it clear that they saw a need for change in the country’s voting system.

Anglin said that there needed to be a much wider debate and assessment of the possible systems which could suit the Cayman Islands but failed to define exactly what he thought was the most successful way. Solomon, on the other hand, advocated his position that in a small country such as Cayman everyone could have 18 votes and elect the entire government.

“We need the right model for our small economy,” said Anglin but did not indicate exactly what he believed that would be.

Solomon said the idea of a national poll was resonating with the voters but he could not explain why government had not offered that option on the referendum. Howeveer, he said he would be “proud” to petition for it after the referendum.

Anglin said that there had not been enough debate on the subject and criticised the OMOV campaign for not coming to government and suggesting a debate on all the issues.

“There has been no debate about how we want to create a voting system,” he said as he emphasised the need to find a system that could attract the broadest base. “We need a continuing dialogue about the appropriate system for Cayman.”

However, the OMOV supporters suggested the national vote idea was merely muddying the waters as the simplest and clearest voting system was one man, one vote in single member constituencies.

Ezzard Miller, who spearheaded the OMOV campaign, pointed out that he had made several attempts to introduce a debate to the Legislative Assembly about the voting system since he was elected in 2009 but also pointed to the historic failure of governments since the 1990s to ignore the growing support across the country for OMOV.

With poll after poll indicating a support of over 80% in favour, he said, it was time to introduce the system. It was also made clear that while the referendum may not carry because of the government’s imposition of a legal require of more than 50% of the electorate rather than the turnout, if the majority of voters who turned out voted in favour this would still be a telling result that the government should still heed.

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Full Dart deal exposed

(CNS):  The deal government and the NRA have signed with Dart is a stand-alone agreement for which the review period for any changes or for either party to pull out appears to have passed, even though the review by an independent auditor has not been made public. MLA Ezzard Miller has now revealed to the public via CNS (posted below) the full document after he received the agreement in the post from an unknown concerned citizen. Despite comments by the premier that it should not be in the public domain, the North Side representative said everyone should have an opportunity to see this deal, which raises significant concerns for the Caymanian people.

Miller has made it clear that he thinks this is a bad deal and judging by the comments on the CNS site this week after some of the details of the deal were posted on Monday, so does a significant portion of the Cayman public. More than 255 comments were posted on the story regarding the fact that government has agreed to give Dart 50% of the tax revenues not only on newly developed or renovated hotels and tourist accommodation but also on any hotels that Dart might buy. This concession threatens existing revenue streams to government as well as reducing potential new ones.

Aside from what Miller describes as excessive concessions and waivers, the North Side MLA also has concerns about the plans for the Esterley Tibbetts Highway Extension, which he says will not be a highway after all, as it appears that there will be numerous roundabouts and exit-entrance ramps along the road. The deal allows Dart to place roundabouts on the road every 1,320 feet and entrance-exits every 600 feet, giving the developer access to land it owns. Miller said that, in effect, this means the Esterley Tibbetts is just another regular road and not the highway originally gazetted by the NRA to carry traffic quickly from George Town to West Bay.

He furtherpointed out that a section of the road is being raised as a bridge that will allow for canals, which, it seems, the Dart Group intends to develop through to the back of the new boutique five-star hotel it intends to build at the Courtyard Marriott site.

“I sincerely hope that Dart does not intend to cut canals all the way through to Seven Mile Beach but even cutting a canal that close to the beach will leave West Bay hanging like a thread to the rest of Grand Cayman,” the MLA stated as he warned about what that could mean during a severe storm.

While the details of the plans regarding the road and the canals are of significant concern, Miller is mostly concerned about the deal itself, which he says is extremely bad for Cayman as the development it is meant to encourage will offer no benefit to the Caymanian people other than trickle down at best.

He said the review period in the agreement ended on 31 March, which is more than three months ago, and this means that the Cayman government may now have no chance to extricate itself from what Miller said was a terrible deal. He said he was concerned about how long it has taken for the review of the agreement by independent auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was meant to be finished before March to be published.

The delay in the publication of this independent review of the deal may mean that no alterations can now be made to what Miller believes is a “bad, bad, bad deal for Cayman but a very good one" for the Dart Group.

“The one thing that the UDP government has proven since it came to office is that selling out the Cayman Islands and giving away massive concessions is not the answer to turning the economy around,” Miller said in answer to Bush’s criticisms that he has no solutions. “Creating jobs in the Cayman Islands is not the problem; we have more than 20,000 of them held by work permit holders. It is the decapitation of Mr Entrepreneur which is the problem caused by allowing large conglomerates to wipe out Caymanian small businesses, which are the life blood of our economy.”

The independent MLA pointed to the massive fees and tax increases that have hit small local businesses while large wealthy investors are handed major concessions. The UDP government, he said, had increased the cost of doing business and the cost of borrowing money and it was polices to address these fundamental problems that were needed, not massive waivers to major corporations. 

See full Dart Agreement below.

Vote in the CNS poll: Is the ForCayman Investment Alliance good for Cayman?

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OMOV final debate before Referendum Day

(CNS): Members of the local social activist group Generation Now will be hosting the last public debate on the issue of one man, one vote and single member constituencies before the big day next week, on Thursday evening. Organisers said the debate starts at 7pm at the Harquail theatre and will see Rolston Anglin, Ellio Solomon, Ezzard Miller, Wayne Panton and David Kirkaldy discuss the critical issue in front of a live audience. The debate will also air on Radio Cayman and offer voters a last chance to listen to the two sides of the argument before going to the polls.

Organisers will be pitching questions about accountability, representation, the country’s history, division, politics, the coat tail effect, investor confidence in the political stability and the balance of power among many other issues at the centre of the debate.

Despite what appears to be widespread support for one man, one vote across Grand Cayman from those with a political interest the battle for the campaigners continues to be the high bar set by the UDP government.  With voter apathy and ignorance of the issues the biggest enemies of the massive grassroots movement towards a switch in the voting system the debate will offer an opportunity for the campaigners to make their case.

Even with support from the Chamber and the wider business community the introduction of a fairer, more equitable and democratic as well as a more accountable system of representationstill has an uphill battle to achieve the magic number of 7582 votes in favour for the referendum to carry.

See flyer below for full details on tonight’s debate
 

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Miller takes Bush on over Dart-NRA Agreement

(CNS): Updated with full speech — Now in possession of the full agreement that the government and the National Roads Authority has signed with Dart Reality regarding the West Bay road elements of the ForCayman Alliance, Ezzard Miller says that when the people of Cayman see it they will be very angry with the premier. Following McKeeva Bush’s criticism of Miller in a statement broadcast on Radio Cayman on Tuesday evening for exposing part of the deal “out of context”, the North Side MLA will also be using government radio this evening to hit back and reveal more about the deal, which he says is so bad the premier can’t possible have read it.

In a statement to be broadcast after the 6pm news on Radio Cayman (Thursday 12 July) the independent member questions why the review from PricewaterhouseCoopers has not been shown to the public and why the premier did not want the people to see the whole agreement until it is too late.

Miller will point out in his own statement to the people about this deal that Bush has failed to defend the fact that he and his fellow members of the UDP have negotiated such a bad deal for the people of the Cayman Islands and instead attempted to shoot the messenger.

Although Bush has said the agreement is subject to change on completion of the review by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a document which is several months overdue, Miller points out that the deal the government and the NRA has signed is a stand-alone agreement and unless there has been an addendum to it, the timeline for changes is well past.

Check back to CNS later this evening for Miller’s full statement and the complete Dart agreement.

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