ELECTIONS OFFICE: POLL PREPARATIONS ON TARGET

By Staff Writer

With a deadline of January 15th to complete registration for the upcoming general election, the Cayman Islands Elections Office is making an all-out push to get all eligible voters signed up.

Supervisor of Elections, Wesley Howell, says special attention is being paid to young and first-time voters registered as preparations continue for the polls due on April 30th.

He was giving an update on the preparations in an appearance on the Caymanian Times podcast, Cayman Conversations with Ralph Lewis.

“We are ready,” he affirmed. “The team has been working very hard since late last year preparing for the possibility of a general election. Once the actual date was announced, we power-shifted into full gear. We are hard at work on all fronts; training, preparing equipment, ordering supplies and getting ready.”

Mr Howell is confident that voter registration for the 2025 election will exceed the 24,000 for the 2021 poll. (At the time of recording this edition of Cayman Conversation the number stood at 23,829 with just over a week to go to the January 15th registration deadline).

“The interest has been quite high,” he reported, noting a steady rise since the last voter registration in October.

Regarding youth voter registration and participation in the electoral process, the Supervisor of Elections said efforts by the Ministry of Youth Affairs, the university and the youth themselves are resulting in “some significant interest” by young people.

However, one area of concern is a development that has been drawn to the attention of the Elections Office in which some politicians and their agents are incorrectly advising voters on changing their voting district.

“What we are gathering is that individuals who are canvassing are supplying forms that are change-of-address forms, and in some cases, individuals are signing the forms without reading the details. And those details are moving them from one electoral district to the next.”

He also said that other persons are deliberately changing their address to a different location in order to vote for a preferred candidate in a different constituency. 

Mr Howell warns that this is a breach of the Elections Law and could result in a fine of KYD$500 or three months in prison.

He also highlighted a further risk faced by those caught breaking the law.

“All of the claims and objections including objections from the Returning Officer go before the Revising Officer who is the Chief Magistrate. And that happens in March. If they are struck off the list in March they would end up not likely to vote in any electoral district at all.”

The upcoming election is expected to follow the general pattern of the last poll in 2021 as Parliament did not accept some of the recommendations made by the observer mission of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, especially regarding redrawing district boundaries and some aspects of voter eligibility.

Those were considered impractical given the local dynamics of the Cayman Islands.

Mr Howell, who has also been a member of CPA election observer missions in other countries, noted that while the recommendations seek to follow international standards, “there are not very many countries in the world whose working population of expatriate workers exceeds the adult population of citizens or belongers, so that wasn’t a recommendation that was suitable for our scenario.”

However, while Elections Supervisor Howell feels that were are aspects of the Elections Law which need to be amended and updated, among them campaign financing and voter registration deadline, he is confident that the Cayman Islands electoral laws and processes “are quite robust” in general.

Meanwhile, with potential candidates now coming forward and with the Elections Office aiming to have maximum voter registration, a high turnout is already being anticipated for the April 30th election.

For this year’s election, once more Cayman is expected to show a good election participation rate of around 70 per cent (and possibly higher) turnout, compared to elsewhere in the region.