Of all the elections I have witnessed this one was the longest. Not to receive the final result until the following morning at 8:45am with an electoral vote of less than 15,000 persons to count is just not good enough.

It is a shame that the three senior members of the electoral office had to end their long and illustrious tenure like this and with overseas observers here for the very first time.

Although having said that, I am sure the observers must have found the Cayman Islands one of their easiest countries in which to observe an election. I am very optimistic we will receive an A-1 report.

Apart from the surprise at the length of time it has taken to get the final result, I am pleasantly surprised we did receive a mandate to continue the party system. The Progressives have been given a second chance to govern and they now must prove to the electorate that there is nothing wrong with a party system when it is not a party of one.

The Progressives were almost in disarray when Arden McLean left the party and there was much criticism of Alden McLaughlin’s leadership after he took over from Kurt Tibbetts. McLaughlin is a quiet spoken, hesitant speaker, and does not appear to be an authoritative figure. He often appears cold and distant but his manners are impeccable. I have been very critical of his performance when he was leader of government business and even more so when he was leader of the opposition.

However, I have noticed a change for the better. He was extremely statesmanlike when he brought to the Legislative Assembly the no confidence motion in the UDP government and asked several times if the then premier, McKeeva Bush would resign as leader so as to avoid the necessity for the motion to be voted on. There was much sadness in his voice and I firmly believe he was sincere.

The fact that he has pulled his party together and appointed the highly respected, Moses Kirkconnell as his deputy, must be applauded and against all the odds, with a powerful group of independents to contend with to split his voting power base he has come through a winner.

In a number of interviews, McLaughlin has said this election was the hardest election campaign he has ever been involved with. I bet it has been.

I was very surprised the Progressives captured all four seats in Bodden Town especially with some strong non-coalition independents they were up against. One was one of their ex-party members and the voice and scribe behind a lot of the Keep Bodden Town Dump Free group. I had expected Mr. Charles Clifford to have done much better.

And what can you say about Tara Rivers? She was to my mind the best and strongest candidate on the C4C group who were largely, to my mind, a huge disappointment. I expected the much respected Roy McTaggart would do well and he did, but I am sure he will agree with me he is not the best speaker. Tara is. She is sharp, concise, precise, feisty and takes no prisoners. She also talks sense.

I was listening to CITN’s Ben Mead talking about how McLaughlin will have to deal with both Ezzard Miller and McKeeva Bush on the opposition bench. I would add Ms Rivers to that duo.

Congratulations Tara for achieving what I was beginning to believe an impossibility. The stranglehold the UDP have had on West Bay. Even more incredulous Ms Rivers came second and at one early time in the count she was leading with more votes than our ex-premier.

I believe we are all relieved it is all over and the proven majority of the country must be reasonably happy.

McLaughlin will not have much of a honeymoon period from us. Tough decisions must be taken and PLEASE NOT ones that involve us in law suits that we can’t win and we have to settle out of court at our expense.

We want honesty, integrity, transparency and a willingness to work together with the opposition. We want our country to be placed first.