Some Cayman Members of the Legislative Assembly, including Premier, Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, wanted all 20,000 qualified Caymanians residing in the Cayman Islands to be registered to vote in the May general election.

It seems their wish is shy of around 1,000.

However, I think they will be pleased with 19,000 and the MLA’s unanimous vote to extend the voter registration has been a success.

If one of our readers also happened to read one of the other media house’s stories on the subject they would have seen a photograph of me filling in my application form to be registered.

In fact there was a gasp from one of the registering officers when they saw me there and realised the purpose of my mission.

So after 31 years of living here I am now on the electoral roll subject to last minute objections.

My reason for not being registered was two-fold. At first, even though I had status, I thought I didn’t deserve the right to vote, as I wasn’t born here and there is no speck of Caymanian blood running through my veins.

Secondly, having been involved in Cayman’s media since 1992, I wanted to be seen to be impartial politically, and not being registered to vote gave me a public sense of credibility to my claim.

I have changed my mind now after the events over the last four years. 31 years is a long time and I have almost reached the big 70 – the three score years and ten*.

*Threescore used to be used for sixty, in the way that we still use a dozen for twelve, and (occasionally) score for twenty. It has long since died out in that usage but is still remembered in this phrase- ‘threescore and ten’.

The use of it that refers to the span of our lives is in Psalm 90 – “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; 
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, 
yet is their strength labour and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”  Shakespeare in Macbeth also used the equation for our life span.

So I am at the end of my life and soon will be on “borrowed” time so I must use these extra months/years wisely.

This year’s election is the most important one in this Country’s history.

How we vote, I firmly believe, will shape the way this country will develop as a nation from here on.

Do we go forward or go backwards?

Is the party system still the way forward or do we go backwards to the independent system to go forward?

There are pros and cons to both. The third equation comes from the Coalition for Cayman (C4C) who, although touting themselves as independent, are actually independents the C4C endorse under an umbrella as “committee” members.

That is as close to an explanation I can come up with to describe this new political advocacy group.

Whatever you believe they are, will certainly add another ingredient into the mixture.

There are 18 seats available for our politicians and wanabe ones to contest and it is widely assumed there will be a record number of persons contesting these seats.

We have gone through much political turmoil, economic hardship and relations with the United Kingdom is at an all time low. With the stigma of corruption and problems with government finance hanging over the country, all of us with a vote must think very hard before we place our ‘X’ against a name or names on the election list.

If we live in West Bay, Bodden Town and especially George Town, we must be even more careful.