Archive for November 8th, 2012
TCI voters head to polls as UK relinquishes hold
(CNS): After almost three years of direct rule the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands will go to the polls Friday to elect a new government under their new constitution. Some 35 candidates from three political parties and two independents will take part in the election which will be watched over by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association British Islands & Mediterranean Region (CPA BIMR) team of independent Election Observers. There are 19 seats in the TCI House of Assembly but only 15 are directly elected as the other four are appointed posts. Ten of the seats are elected in single member district constituencies and five seats are combined from across the country.
Voters complete two ballot papers one for a single member in their relevant constituency vote and then voters can vote up to five times on the second ballot paper for the all island candidates with the top five being elected on a first past the post basis. Over 7,240 people are registered to vote and eligible to cast a ballot in this election.
The People’s Democratic Movement (PDM) is fielding 10 Electoral District candidates and five All Island candidates as is the Progressive National Party (PNP)- the party kicked from office when the UK took over, while the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) is fielding five Electoral district candidates only. One of the independents is standing in one Electoral District and the other as an all island candidate.
“This week marks the start of a much heralded and long anticipated new chapter in the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI),” said Ric Todd the TCI governor ahead of the ballot. “I am very much looking forward to the elections on Friday and appointing both the new Premier and the Leader of the Opposition early next week, dependent, of course, on the electoral arithmetic from Friday’s poll.
Having recovered from the challenges that combined to create the perfect storm in TCI Todd pointed to hurricane Ike the breakdown of good governance, the global financial crisis, growing debt, the loss of confidence in the Institutions and the allegations of criminal activity.He said this recovery and the implementation of more ambitious public sector reform than in any UK Overseas Territory, and perhaps in the region was a remarkable achievement by the people of TCI.
Todd added that growth returned in 2010, has continued at 4.3% in 2011 and is expected to carry on this year helped by a series of significant investments.
Commending the local politicians the governor said they were “civil and focused on the positives of their own plans for the country.” He said the campaign had been described as the calmest, most reasonable and orderly election in memory.
Thanking the TCI people for their patience and fortitude over the past three years, Todd added: “ We have tried at all times to consult widely, to be open, honest and accountable while trying to do the right thing for the TCI – meet the milestones, build the economy and run effective and transparent government.” He said there were still many challenges ahead, but the UK was ready to work with the new administration. “I would like to wish good luck to all 37 candidates in Friday’s election. Now it is up to the electorate to decide,” Todd said.
Farm to release 150 turtles in face of controversies
(CNS): Against the backdrop of international controversy the Cayman Turtle Farm has said it will release 150 turtles into the wild this weekend in its 32nd Annual Pirates Week event. The largest release for many years comes at atime when the facility is coming under increasing pressure to move away from farming and towards conservation. The World Society for the Protection of Animals has launched a full scale campaign against the farm in its current form and is drumming up support across the globe but in particular in the UK parliament. The Cayman Turtle Farm returned its annual release to Pirate’s Week in 2009 after several years of modest numebrs and a ceasation of the release altogther in 2006.
Last year the farm released 40 hatchlings but this year it is more than tripling the number to 150. Since 1968 what the farm calls its ‘headstarting’ programme has placed over thirty-one thousand farmed green sea turtles into the wild.
Meanwhile, in London the WSPA is continuing with its campaign with the help of British MPs from both sides of the political divide. A dozen or so parliamentary questions have been submitted to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, Mark Simmonds about the Farm and there are two Early Day Motions which are picking up support in the House of Commons. The website campaign has also generated more than 83,300 signatures. While Richard Branson offered his backing last week to the Turtle Farm, Paul McCartney in the UK has thrown his weight behind the WSPA campaign which has been picked up in the British Press.
The research undertaken by the WSPA that documented myriad shortcomings at the farm from the water quality and overcrowded conditions in the tanks in which the turtles are kept to cases of disease, congenital defects and even cannibalism, was rejected by the Cayman Turtle Farm. It has announced its intention to undertake an independent audit next month to show that the findings of the WSPA are unfounded.
Criticised for releasing farmed turtles because of the dangers of disease being passed to the animals in the wild, the farm is nevertheless pressing on with this significant release next week. Officials said that turtles are quarantined and reviewed for any disease or defect before release.
“Our release programme is dear to our hearts and a central component of our conservation activities as we continue to preserve the Green Sea Turtle population,” Adam said. “This is a very important event for us, as we are releasing a larger number of turtles than we have in several years.”
This year’s significantly higher number is due to a highly successful nesting season, officials said, which saw a record number of eggs laid and an increased hatching rate.
“The Cayman Turtle Farm’s release programme is an important aspect of the organisation’s conservation mandate,” the Farm stated as it invited everyone to come along to the release on the shores of the North Sound across from the North Sound Golf Club on Sunday, 11 November at 4pm.
“Members of the public are invited to join the Cayman Turtle Farm in our conservation efforts,” said Managing Director Tim Adam. “This year visitors to the Cayman Turtle Farm and the Pirates Week Office leading up the event can enter a raffle for a chance to release one of 15 turtles into the sea.”
This year’s release will include yearlings and advanced hatchlings. Yearlings will be fitted with Passive Integrated Transponders (PIT tags) which are micro transponders encased in a glass case about the size of a large grain of rice,” the Farm explained. These electronic tags are injected under the skin and can only be detected with a scanner — similar to wand scanners used at the grocery store.
These and other types of tags allow researchers to identify individual animals and better understand migration and nesting patterns. The most recent observational data shows that 14 females tagged andreleased from the Cayman Turtle Farm in the 1980s, have returned to lay their own eggs on Cayman beaches.
Historically, the Cayman Islands boasted one of thelargest green sea turtle populations in the Caribbean and possibly the world but by 1900, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) had deemed this population to be extinct in the Cayman Islands. Today, according to the Department of Environment, there are less than thirty adult female green sea turtles nesting in the Cayman Islands each year. The Farm said its release programme is to help replenish the local population of reproducing green sea turtles.