Date: Thursday, 30 May 2019

Issued by: Elections Office 

The Supervisor of Elections met with the Cruise Port Referendum group on Tuesday, 29 May 2019 to discuss the process of the People Initiative Referendum according to the Cayman Islands Constitution Order 2009. It should be noted that whilst the process was discussed no signatures were provided to the Elections Office.

Mr. Wesley Howell will be in attendance at a public meeting on Thursday, 30 May 2019, at George Town, Town Hall from 6 to 8 p.m. to speak more on the matter.

The process towards the People Initiated Referendum involves the following stages:

·         The staff of the Elections Office will conduct an independent verification of the petition signatures, in accordance with constitutional requirements under Section 90 and Section 70 (1) (b) of the referendum.

o   Election Office officials will ensure the provided referendum signatures corresponds with the current electoral register

o   As part of the verification method under the law, manual checks will also be conducted by Election Office officials with each petitioner to ensure signature validity.

If the verification process confirms that the level of signatures meets or exceeds the required 25% (5,289) of persons registered as electors (21,155) in accordance with section 90:

·         Pursuant to Section 70, the Cabinet will consider constitutional provisions, and if Cabinet is satisfied that those requirements are met a bill will be drafted to support the Referendum, setting out the terms and requirements of the referendum.

·         Once a bill is passed in the LA, and gazetted, His Excellency the Governor will appoint Returning Officers and issue the WRIT of the Referendum.

The Referendum voting and counting process will follow a similar process to that of a General Election, including the following:

·         Postal Voting

·         Mobile Voting

·         Polling Day (Referendum Day)

·         Voting in all 19 Electoral Districts (7 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

·         Constitutionally only registered voters are allowed to vote in a referendum.

From the issuance of the WRIT, based on previous referendums, the process is expected to take approximately 10 weeks, which will allow the Elections Office time to prepare staff, materials and carry out the referendum process including postal ballots.