Cayman Islands general elections run smoothly

Governor Bruce Dinwiddy (left) and Chief Secretary
George McCarthy observe the results of the Cayman
Islands General Elections

Monday, May 16, 2005

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands:  By all reports, last week's general elections in the Cayman Islands, which were postponed from November 2004 due to Hurricane Ivan, ran smoothly with no reports of violence or other problems at the 34 polling stations in six districts across the islands.

However, politics in the Cayman Islands changed overnight when the results of the poll on 11 May were finalized and showed the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) winning over the rival United Democratic Party (UDP).

The PPM, which is led by Mr. Kurt Tibbetts, won in the districts of George Town, Bodden Town, East End and North Side giving them a majority nine seats out of a possible 15 in the Legislative Assembly. Former Leader of Government Business and UDP leader Mr. McKeeva Bush was re-elected to represent West Bay as were three of his party members and a fifth member from Cayman Brac in the Sister Islands, Mrs. Juliana O’Connor Conolly. The second elected member for the Sister Islands was Independent Moses Kirkconnell.

The Legislative Assembly resumes on 18 May for the swearing in for the nine PPM, five UDP members and the single elected independent member.

Supervisor of Elections, Kearney Gomez, said that elections officials fulfilled their promise in 2000 to run an efficient election without mechanized ballots. “We ran this election like a military operation and had the final results counted in just over seven hours. This year we added additional counting stations at the polls which doubled our speed and efficiency,” he said. “All our polling officers were ready and in place well before the polls opened at 7am and despite a few delays due to nervous first-time polling officers we were able to move a record 10,000 people through the polls by mid afternoon.” Voter turnout this year was 79.19% about 2% less than in 2000.

Close to 500 polling officers, election officials, and constables from the Royal Cayman Islands Police were engaged to monitor this year’s election: “During the past year we held training exercises for Police and officials to ensure these elections were our most efficient ever,” said Mr. Gomez. At the Election Command Centre in George Town Chief Secretary George McCarthy and Governor Bruce Dinwiddy were among the government officials observing the election.

“The success of this year’s election was also due to a very well informed electorate which we attribute to fantastic media coverage both in the print and electronic media,” said Mr. Gomez.

All the public schools and municipal halls which were utilized as polling stations reopened as normal on 12 May.

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