By Caribbean News Now contributor
PPM leader Alden McLaughlin
GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands — Following last Wednesday’s general elections in the Cayman Islands, which gave the opposition People’s Progressive Movement (PPM) nine out of the 18 elected seats in the Legislative Assembly, one short of an absolute majority, it now seems certain that PPM leader Alden McLaughlin will become the territory’s next premier.
McLaughlin has made former short-term premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly speaker of the Assembly, giving him the necessary majority that he needs to form a government.
An independent elected member Tara Rivers, who broke the stranglehold enjoyed by former premier McKeeva Bush on his district of West Bay, has been offered a cabinet position, which if accepted would cement the PPM’s overall majority in the Assembly.
The political status quo in the Cayman Islands was shaken up at the end of last year with the arrest of then premier Bush on suspicion of fraud and corruption. He has since been formally charged with two counts of misconduct in public office, four counts of breach of trust by a member of the Legislative Assembly, and five counts of theft.
One week after his arrest on December 11, 2012, Bush was ousted from office when Cayman Islands lawmakers passed a vote of no confidence in him, which led to a split of the UDP and a subsequent minority government in the territory.
Just one member of the breakaway faction of the UDP that voted against Bush in the vote of no-confidence, O’Connor Connolly, was able to retain her seat in Wednesday’s election.
