Archive for July, 2012
GT seals ‘Yes’ majority
(CNS): Despite the fact that the majority of people who came out to the polls on Wednesday to vote in the national referendum on one man, one vote voted in favour, the national poll has fallen short of the high bar set by government. In the capital electors voted well over two to one in favour, with 2,360 voting 'yes' and 993 voting 'no'. Although some 5,631 of voters overall polled in favour of changing the electoral system from multi-member constituencies with multiple voting to single member constituencies and OMOV, the premier has said he will not be swayed by a majority that falls short of 50% plus one of the entire electorate.
The count was completed by 11:30 on Wednesday evening with the results from the country's largest district coming in last.
At the final count 37% voted for OMOV and less than 20% against, but with over 33% failing to turn out at the polls, the referendum will not carry.
Results for OMOV national referendum
National vote: 'yes' = 5631, 'no' = 3,001
CBLC: yes – 256, no – 203
East End: yes – 257, no – 79
North Side: yes – 335, no – 56
West Bay: yes – 1027, no – 1053
Bodden Town: yes – 1396, no – 617
George Town: yes – 2360, no – 993
Check back to CNS tomorrow for more on the historic referendum and what this means for the May 2013 election
Bodden Town says ‘Yes’
(CNS): After a disappointing result in West Bay, the OMOV campaign was boosted by an overwhelming 'yes' in the district of Bodden Town. The result went in favour of OMOV with 1,396 people voting in favour, while 617 people voted against the question in Cayman's fastest growing community, pushing up the national 'yes' count overall. However, it was already clear when the electors in West Bay voted a marginal 'no” that the referendum was lost. With only the George Town count left, the country will soon know the final tally and exactly how many people supported what was originally a grass roots movement to change Cayman's voting system.
Preliminary results:
CBLC: yes – 256, no – 203
East End: yes – 257, no – 79
North Side: yes – 335, no – 56
West Bay: yes – 1,027, no – 1053
Bodden Town: yes – 1,396, no – 617
East End ‘Yes’, West Bay ‘No’
(CNS): While voters in East End came out in support for one man, one vote, the OMOV campaigners will be bitterly disappointed with the West Bay result, where voters were almost equally split on the issue. In East End the preliminary result was 257 voters saying 'yes' but only 79 voting 'no'. However, in West Bay it was a very different story. Sealing the fate of the referendum, 1,053 West Bayers voted 'no' while 1,027 voted 'yes'. With only two more districts to count, the best the OMOV campaign can now hope for is a moral victory in Bodden Town and the capital of George Town.
According to the premier, a majority vote in favour of OMOV that falls short of the 50% plus one of the electorate will not sway government to introduce single memebr constituencies.
McKeeva Bush has said he will be making a statement from the UDP referendum headquarters once the count is complete.
Preliminary Results of OMOV referendum
CBLC: yes – 256, no – 203
East End: yes – 257, no – 79
North Side yes – 335, no – 56
West Bay: yes – 1027 no – 1053
Miller celebrates in NS
(CNS): With results overwhelmingly in favour of one man, one vote in the constituency of North Side, independent MLA Ezzard Miller had much to celebrate. Despite a lower than hoped for turn out across the country, indications in his own constituency are that those who have gone to the polls have voted 'yes.” More than 80% of registered voters there who went to the polls voted in favour of OMOV, representing more than 60% of the entire electorate. If that rate had been repeated across Cayman, it would have equated to a 'yes' result.
“I am appreciative of the turnout in North Side and pleased with the result as it shows when you work with the people for the benefit of the people you can get a good result,” he said. “It also demonstrates that the vitriolic attacks on me by the premier had no effect on the intelligent voters of North Side."
As the results began to come in on Wednesday evening indicating an overwhelming 'yes' vote in East End at 257 versus only 79 voting 'no” and a marginal 'yes' vote in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, Miller said he was still optimistic for a moral victory for the OMOV campaign, if not a legal one.
“I am still optimistic that the vote will show the majority of people who voted were supporters of OMOV," he said. “If we have a significant number of 'yes' votes across Cayman then the UDP will have some explaining to do. Based on the final result, I still plan to bring a motion that the government should take note of the majority of the turnout.”
Preliminary referendum results
CBLC: yes – 256, no – 203
East End: yes – 257, no – 79
North Side yes – 335, no – 56
Voters saying ‘Yes’ to OMOV
(CNS): Although the count still has a long way to go, early results from the election command centre indicate that those who bothered to go to the polls are voting 'yes' to one man, one vote. In North Side 335 people have voted 'yes' with only 56 people bothering to vote 'no', and even in the Sister Islands, where voter apathy was the most apparent, the final count there indicated 256 people voted 'yes' against 206 voting 'no'. Meanwhile, at the half way point of the count, in East End, so far the vote is heavily in favour of one man, one vote. Keep checking CNS for the latest live results.
Referendum not binding, Brackers told before ballot
(CNS): The one man, one vote (OMOV) campaign was launched in Cayman Brac just 36 hours before polls opened on Referendum Day with a meeting hosted by PPM representative Moses Kirkconnell and members of the OMOV grassroots movement. While the question of equality in giving each voter one vote was largely supported by the 100 or so Brackers at the meeting, there appeared to be very little support for introducing more accountability to the job of representing the district by dividing it into two single member constituencies (SMC). However, Kirkconnell made it clear that the referendum result was not binding and that the government would have absolute say over what, if any, changes would be made to the election law and when they would be implemented, regardless of the result. (Photos by James Tibbetts)
Cayman Brac and Little Cayman had the lowest turnout of all the districts with less than 50% of registered voters turning up to vote at the polls Wednesday.
Even if the ‘yes’ vote for OMOV and SMC prevailed in the national ballot, the Brac voters could still make representation to the government as to what system they wanted for the district, Kirkconnell suggested.
“If the referendum passes, it still does not bind government to institute a division of the island,” the Brac MLA said, echoing, but not countering, the UDP’s simpler anti-OMOV and -SMC message that it would split the island. He said the election law, which governs the voting system, is controlled by the legislature and any changes to it would be the burden of the government that is in power, not the opposition.
Retired attorney Wayne Panton (right with Moses Kirkconnell), who is expected to run in the next general election on the PPM ticket, noted that the referendum question “does not specifically commit the government to too much and does not commit them to implement anything by the 2012 election," though several Cabinet ministers had given verbal assurances that the results would be honoured by government, he said.
Two more attorneys on the platform, Marco Archer and Andre Ebanks, agreed that there was nothing legally binding about the results of the national ballot, since it was a government-initiated referendum and not, as had been intended by the petition for the national ballot for OMOV, a people-initiated referendum.
In addition, it was "drafted loosely", Ebanks said, “although if it was passed, government would find it very difficult to resist 50% plus one of the voters,” he added.
However, Kirkconnell also said that when the OMOV petition had been launched by the campaigners, there had been two petitions in Cayman Brac, one asking for 18 single member constituencies and the other asking for 16 SMC on Grand Cayman but leaving Cayman Brac as a single vote, multi-member district. The OMOV group had agreed to the variance in voting systems, he said.
Joining Kirkconnell and the three attorneys on the platform to present the last minute case for the referendum question were Kenneth Bryan, a former TV presenter and possible candidate at the next election, and Jonathan Tibbetts, general manager of CB&LC Power & Light Company.
One question put to the panel was what could be done to remove an elected representative from the Legislative Assembly mid-term. “Some stuff has gone on in the last couple of years,” the Brac resident said, adding that “more mischief could go on over the next 6 months.”
The new constitution was a step in the right direction, Archer told him, but said an amendment was needed to include a recall provision for representatives “who are a mistake”. He said, “You do not know what someone is capable of until they are elected. It is incumbent on each of us to take the first step and vote ‘yes’ on Wednesday to send a clear message that we, the people, have woken up.”
He said, “We need to have people in the House who put country before self and are willing to put a recall provision in the constitution. No price is too great to pay for democracy and proper representation.”
Returning to the theme of accountability, Archer said that SMCs would result in “more intimate relationships between the electorate and their representatives,” who would get constant feedback from the constituents and would have to engage in dialogue with them.
Referring to single member constituencies, local businessman Elvis McKeever noted that this was already going on in the district because during elections supporters of one politician urged voters to use only one of their two votes anyway.
Andre Ebanks said that in his district of West Bay, SMC would make a huge difference because it would identify who is answerable to him.
However, while keeping the district united was the popular opinion of attendees at the meeting, the panel did not offer a case for why the Sister Islands should be an exception to the referendum question put to the electorate on Wednesday or why the arguments for greater accountability with SMCs did not apply to Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.
Polls close on 57% turnout
(CNS): When the polls closed on Cayman's referendum on one man, one vote (OMOV) at 6pm on Wednesday evening 8,715 electors had turned out to vote. Representing 57.67% of the register of electors the number is just enough for the 'yes' vote to carry. The count has now started in each of the districts and OMOV campaigners are hoping that the vast majority of those who have voted have said 'yes', giving them a moral if not a legal victory. Turnout varied across the country, with an impressive result in North Side while apathy prevailed in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman. The deputy supervisor of elections has said that the result of this historic ballot should be confirmed by midnight.
Although the turnout was not as high as OMOV campaigners had hoped, the results for a mid-term referendum in the summer months are not, by comparison to other nations, particularly low with considerable interest from the electorate in certain districts.
In North Side over 72% of electors came to the polls and in Bodden Town just over 58% of voters turned out, exceeding the national average. In the country's capital George Town and in East End and West Bay more than 57% came out to vote. However, apathy was the order of the day in Cayman Brac, where less than 50% of voters chose to go to the polls.
The hard work now starts for election officials as counting is now underway in each of the districts and at the central command in George Town, where all results will be relayed and official results announced.
Final voter turnout
West Bay 2102
George Town 3391
CBLC 463
Bodden Town 2025
North Side 398
East End 336
Check back to CNS for live results throughout the evening.
11th hour turnout passes 55%
(CNS): The Cayman Islands referendum on one man, one vote could carry after a last minute increase in turnout on Wednesday afternoon. At 5pm on 18 July, with just one hour to go before the polls close, 8,350 voters had taken part in the national ballot. With more than 55.25% of the electorate coming out, there is an outside chance of the 'yes' vote winning the day. North Side continues to lead the polls for the number of voters coming out as more than 70% of registered voters have cast their ballot. But staying with the pattern established earlier in the day, the lowest turnout remains in the Sister Islands, where less than half of the electorate have cast their votes.
Meanwhile, 55% of voters in George Town, East End and Bodden Town exercised their democratic right, while just over 54% of the voters came out in West Bay.
The polls close at 6pm, with the final voter toll expected before 6.30pm.
The critical count starts at 7pm and CNS will be updating the results from each district live as the returning officers declare the official count and the decision Cayman has made on one man, one vote and single member constituencies.
Turnout low as clock ticks
(CNS): Voter apathy is gripping Cayman with a low voter turnout across the country in the historic referendum on one man, one vote. At 3pm less than half of the electorate, just 49.3%, had gone to vote. So far, only 7,457 people have voted, which is still not enough for the 'yes' vote to win since more than 7,583 people need to vote in favour of the referendum in order for it to carry. With just three hours of voting left, North Side was still leading the turnout stakes with almost 64% of registered electors having cast their vote there, but voters in Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were avoiding the polls with just over 40% going to vote. In the nation's capital 49% of people have voted and in West Bay the turnout was just over 48%.
In East End the voter toll reached 47.6% by 3pm this afternoon and in Bodden Town 49.8% of registered electors ghad cast their votes.
OMOV campaigners were hitting the streets Wednesday afternoon in a bid to persuade people to cast their vote – be it for or against – as the feared scenario of a low turnout and voter apathy looked like having an adverse effect on their expectations for at least a moral victory.
Polling stations defaced
(CNS): As Referendum Day reaches its half way point, a number of polling stations have been defaced, election officials have reported. Vandals have scribbled on posters in an effort to unlawfully influence the ballot, Deputy Supervisor of Elections Orrett Connor said after some 6,346 voters turned out at the polls. About 42% of the electorate has voted so far, but well over a thousand more voters need to go to the polls to give the referendum any chance of carrying. The district of North Side is where the greatest percentage of voters have gone to the polls and Cayman Brac and Little Cayman still have the lowest turnout.
Connor said the defacing of guide posters was unheard of in elections in the Cayman Islands as he reminded the voting public that it is an offence under the elections law because the graffiti constituted an infraction. He said that vandals had written "Vote No" or "Vote Yes" on information posters at the polling stations in an effort to influence the outcome. Apart from the graffiti, Connor said, the referendum was going smoothly and he encouraged more voters to come out to the polls and exercise their democratic right.
Across the districts voter turnout is varying greatly, with a 55% in North Side compared to 34% in the Sister Islands. In West Bay over 40% of voters have been to the polls, while in George Town and Bodden Town 42% of the registered voters have already voted. Meanwhile, in East End just over 39% of electors have cast their vote.
Governor Duncan Taylor paid a call to the George Town election command centre at lunchtime toget feedback on how the referendum process was progressing and he had words of encouragement for voters.
“It's not mandatory to vote in the Cayman Islands but it is a great freedom to vote … The higher the turnout the more legitimacy to the result,” he said as he urged people to take part in the process.
The polls remain open until 6pm and the count will start at 7pm with results expected before 1am on Thursday morning.