Thomas C. Famous. Photo: Provided

On Nomination Day, Monday, March 1, 2021, there were a total of 50 candidates vying for 19 seats.

Of all the OTs, Cayman Islands has the distinction of having a large portion of “Independents” as both candidates and subsequently, as elected MPs.

Currently, the government consists of a “coalition” of 2 parties and a few independents.

The main party, led by Premier Hon Alden M. McLaughlin Jr, is known as the People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) with a total of 7 seats.

The other parties are Cayman Democratic Party (CDP) with 3 seats and the Cayman Islands People’s Party (CIIP) with 1 seat.

There are currently 8 independent MPs.

Coalition government

On nomination day, the Progressives rolled out a total of 8 candidates.

This simply means that even if they won all of the seats that they contest, the PPM will still need a minimum of 2 other MPs to join them in order to form a parliamentary majority.

Some may say this is “political chaos”, whilst others will call this “Democracy in action”.

There are a total of approximately 23,700 registered voters in the Cayman Islands.

The 19 constituencies have an average of 1,300 voters each with the smaller “Sister Islands” of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, having approximately 600 voters each.

Also note that by Caymanian Constitutional Order, the Premier can only serve for a maximum of two terms.

All political candidates are allowed to spend up to a maximum $30,000 on their political campaigns.

The main issues that are on the minds of Caymanians are as follows:

● Cost of living
● Affordable housing
● Jobs for Caymanians
● Healthcare costs
● Traffic congestion
● Overdevelopment
● Infrastructure

In listening to these concerns, it seems that almost all OTs have extremely similar concerns.

We will be doing some follow up articles to keep you up to date with developments. However, the results on April 14, 2021, the people of Cayman Islands will be looking for positive movement on those issues.