Aug 22 2019

We have called this press conference to address a number of concerns relating to the governance of the country, in particular, constitutional changes and the peoples-initiated referendum.

On the matter of the proposed constitutional changes, we have listened intently as the premier and the elected member for North Side Mr. Miller, addressed the talks and the circumstances leading up to the talks which were held in December 2018.

Unfortunately, while they have explained that we were aware of the proposed changes, they have not let the country know that they did not have consensus on all the proposals. It should be noted that, all the Opposition supported aspects of the proposed changes which dealt with the ‘Overreach” by the UK Government with respect to legislating for the Cayman Islands, the genesis of which was the Beneficial Ownership issue.

We believed then and we believe today, that any proposed domestic legislation affecting the lives or livelihood of the people of the Cayman Islands, should not be promulgated or implemented by the UK Parliament,without first consulting the people of the Cayman Islands via their elected representatives.

With regards to the other proposed changes to the Cayman Islands Constitution, the Premier and Mr. Miller are acutely aware that there was not consensus among the members of the Official Opposition and to say otherwise is being disingenuous. 

We can further categorically state that we have not had any in-depth briefing on the talks that were held on the Constitution in England. However, we were assured that further talks were intended to finalize the proposals.

Turning to the matter of the People Initiated Referendum. We like the rest of the country recognize that the referendum is imminent and would like to congratulate those individuals who worked so hard to reach this historic milestone.

While we believe that this provision in the constitution is a vital part of ensuring that our people participate in the governance of their country, we are mindful of the absence of a law that defines the process of a peoples-initiated referendum. To that end we encourage the Government to propose a law,which we will happily contribute to.

We encourage the Government, upon completion of the verification process, to expeditiously move to settle the wording of the referendum question, and forward same to the Legislative Assembly for debate and approval. 

We are ready and prepared to participate in the referendum process, and strongly urge the Government to maintain precedents established in previous referendums.