ELECTION OBSERVERS ARRIVE FOR APRIL 30th POLL

A nine-member team from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association is in Cayman to observe, report and make recommendations on the conduct of the April 30th general election.

Four parliamentarians from The Isle of Man, Jersey, Scotland and Wales are part of the mission, as well as 2 election experts, and 3 members of staff from the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK branch (CPA UK).

The Observer mission is led by Rob Ward, an elected member of the local government of Jersey in the Channel Islands, a UK Crown Dependency where he carries the title of Deputy in the States Assembly and is the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning. Deputy Ward is also the chairman of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association(CPA),

During a press conference detailing the role of the CPA election observer mission here, Deputy Ward explained that their role is to observe the process, and make comments and recommendations in their final report.

“There’s no predetermined outcome as to what we produce,” he stressed.

In the run-up to Election Day, the election observers have been meeting election officials, parliamentary candidates and local groups to get an insight into the electoral process and the specific context of the election.

In a statement, the CPA election observer team said it would assess the election against international standards, commitments and obligations, as well as domestic laws.

“Our approach is very specific,” explained Anne Marlborough, CPA elections analyst who is from Ireland. “Our work isn’t to come here and in some way to compare the elections of the Cayman Islands to the elections in Ireland. We’re looking at this election as a specific event on its own governed purely by the laws and standards that are particular to the Cayman Islands and that the Cayman Islands has taken on for itself and the laws it has introduced domestically. So we’ll be using the international standards and the domestic laws as our guide ”

In response to a question about the implementation of CPA recommendations posed by Caymanian Times publisher Ralph Lewis, the leader of the observer mission, Deputy Rob Ward, emphasised that it would be up to the Cayman Islands government and parliament.

“Generally, it’s up to the government of the day to make those changes that are recommended,” he stated. “ I would say, as a parliamentarian myself, it is up to your parliament to implement those because parliaments are more than just governments.”

Regarding the implementing recommendations, CPA elections analyst Anne Marlborough offered this example.

“When we were last present physically in the country in 2017 one of our comments in the report was that civil society was still at a very limited level and that there wasn’t a lot of civil society activism in the political rights area that we were addressing in our report. And then our 2021 report acknowledges the growth, the significant growth in civil society activity.”

According to the CPA delegation, after election day, there will be a second press conference on May 2nd so that initial findings about the election can be shared. Two months later, a final report will be released with detailed findings and recommendations.

This is the fourth time that international observers have been invited to the Cayman Islands. For the last election in 2021, the mission was carried out virtually because of COVID-19 restrictions.