GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands, May 19 – Voters go to the polls Wednesday to vote for a new government in a general election in which there are no clear-cut favourites.
Two major parties, the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) – which has branded itself as “The Progressives – under the leadership of attorney Alden McLaughlin and the United Democratic Party (UDP), led by former premier McKeeva Bush, are fielding slates of 15 and 12 candidates respectively.
The People’s National Alliance (PNA), a breakaway faction of the UDP, which has formed a “lame duck” government since the ouster of Bush in a lack of confidence vote last December, is running a ticket of five candidates.
Another grouping, Coalition for Cayman (C4C), has endorsed a slate of seven candidates. However, C4C insists it is not a party but a political advocacy group promoting “independent leaders who will always put country first”.
Add to the mix a plethora of other independent candidates, which brings to total of 56 candidates vying for the 18 seats in the Legislative Assembly, the parliament of this British Overseas Territory where there are 18,492 registered voters.
Nowhere is the race more intriguing than in George Town, the capital of this financial services jurisdiction, where there are 21 candidates on the ballot for the six available seats.
There is no history of consistent scientific opinion polls in the lead up to elections in the Cayman Islands, although some of the parties and groups have commissioned their own surveys this time around – the results of which they have kept out of the public domain.
However, unscientific polls by the various media houses indicate there is a chance of no party securing an outright majority, meaning a coalition government could be a distinct possibility.
