PACT REPACKAGED?

By Staff Writer

At the end of a day bristling with political drama Premier Wayne Panton’s PACT (People-driven, Accountable, Competent and Transparent) coalition just managed to hold on to office on Tuesday night at the end of a bruising no-confidence motion.

But less than twenty-four hours later in the post-mortem of the motion, it was becoming apparent that high-level talks were underway to shore up the faltering administration.

Premier Wayne Panton was said to be battling to save his shaky coalition government after this close call. Sources close to the talks have indicated to Caymanian Times that intense efforts to keep PACT intact were continuing with one proposition being a strong likelihood of a major shift in the coalition’s power structure.

A major Cabinet reshuffle was not ruled out with the probability of defected members returning to the fold and giving a revamped PACT coalition its previous unassailable parliamentary majority.

A reconstituted PACT coalition without Mr Panton at the helm was one of the options cited by Opposition and Progressives leader Roy McTaggart when he presented the no-confidence motion. The others were a Progressives-led coalition or early elections - the latter proposition which he said he did not favour.

While the outcome of the no-confidence motion ended days of speculation over PACT’s survival, it left unresolved the constitutional issues surrounding the ongoing hung parliament with both government and opposition benches commanding nine of the 19 seats - the other held by the Speaker.

With a vote of eight in favour, seven against, and three abstentions, the Opposition motion to unseat PACT - supported by former PACT coalition members - had failed to dismantle the government. Despite the votes in-favour dominating, the motion nevertheless failed to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority required in the constitution.

Unlike the United Kingdom and several Overseas Territories (British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands) which use a simple majority, the Cayman Islands constitution requires a two-thirds majority for a no-confidence motion to carry.

However, speculation over whether the government’s position would have been effectively rendered untenable was being played down in the aftermath of the motion.

Mr Panton’s PACT coalition has suffered the exit of three members this year; former finance minister Chris Saunders, Labour Minister Dwayne Seymour and earlier this month backbench supporter McKeeva Bush, which was the trigger point for the Opposition-led motion of no-confidence. With the departure of Mr Bush in particular, the PACT was left in a precarious position, having just nine members on the government side of the Parliament

Surprisingly two of the three abstentions came from within the PACT coalition; Deputy Premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly and André Ebanks - Min. Financial Services and Commerce.

Both the government and opposition each still hold nine seats out of 19 in the chamber, leaving the Speaker with a critical casting vote on legislative issues. But Speaker Ebanks-Wilks assured in her comments at the end of the meeting: “I know that I have displayed nothing but neutrality since I’ve been here.”

In a profound intervention at the end of the session, she called for constitutional reform to be considered especially pertaining to the position of the Speaker in such situations and for the role to be autonomous.

Earlier in the session, in leading off the debate, Opposition and Progressives leader, McTaggart, referred to what he called “an unprecedented situation”. He submitted that the motion was directed at the policy shortcomings of “a dysfunctional government” which he said had now lacked the parliamentary majority to govern effectively.

The former finance minister with the previous Progressives-led government, was particularly concerned about the delayed status of the upcoming budget, proposed cutbacks and the wider implications for the government’s economic management.

Responding to the motion of no-confidence, Premier Wayne Panton strongly defended his government’s track record and rejected the Opposition’s move as “opportunistic”. He brushed aside reports of rifts in his PACT team dismissing them as being blown out of proportion.

“We all wish for a Cayman that will focus on the greater good and the welfare of the less fortunate, and that is what we’ve been trying to deliver on,” he stated and called for the Parliament and the country to move beyond the issue of the no-confidence motion.

The two main speeches for and against the motion by the Opposition Leader and the Premier were book-ended by equally passionate presentations from both sides of the Parliamentary divide. Minister for Health Sabrina Turner stood by the Premier and the PACT team, contrasted by ex-PACT colleagues Chris Saunders, McKeeva Bush and Dwayne Seymour.

Ex-PACT Finance Minister Saunders cited his disagreements with PACT leader Premier Wayne Panton which led him to quit the coalition but praised other remaining members of the coalition as hard-working and committed.

Current Minister of Health Sabrina Turner defended the track record of the PACT coalition and committed to keeping her political loyalty intact with PACT.

Mr Seymour disclosed internal differences led the PACT caucus to vote for their leader, Premier Wayne Panton to step down. He also reminded that he had tabled a motion of confidence in Parliament in support of the coalition.

Former Premier and ex-PPM/Progressives leader Sir Alden McLaughlin was excoriating in his assessment of the PACT government especially its leadership, invoking Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Merchant of Venice to illustrate what he saw as the demise confronting the coalition. He also referenced the 12 Green Bottles nursery rhyme as an omen of PACT falling apart.

Deputy Opposition leader (Progressives) Joey Hew also went on the attack against the PACT governing record and reports of internal divisions, saying the rest of the region was watching the unfolding political drama in Cayman, an observation previously made.

PACT Commerce Minister Andre Ebanks admitted that there were stresses within the coalition and referred to instances in the Parliament where the Cabinet seemed to be “at battle with itself”.

In a remark which has sent political reverberations beyond Tuesday’s sitting, in quite sombre tones Mr Ebanks put team PACT on notice. “I’ll do my part, and if everybody chips in we can reform somehow and get it together and exceed expectations.”

Advising that he would abstain in the initial vote, he also ominously warned: “If we do not make it and there is some crash, some scandal, Premier there won’t be any long letter to you or the Governor…There’ll be a two-line resignation that says I will therefore have to put the country first.”

The talks to repackage PACT were reportedly continuing at press time.