I am afraid I lost “my cool” last Thursday and Friday over the One Man, One Vote (OMOV) Referendum. It was not because the OMOV lost, I could not see how it could succeed by the way the Government had made every conceivable legal way to sabotage their “OWN” election.

I put the word “OWN” in quotes because by the Cayman Islands Constitution a government sponsored/initiated (their OWN) referendum (under section 69) does not state the requirement for a threshold of 50% plus one of the registered voters that Mr. Bush keeps quoting. He is quoting the meaning under section 70 of the Constitution – a people-initiated referendum, which this clearly wasn’t. Everywhere else in the world a government-initiated referendum only requires a majority of the people who voted to win. But Mr. Bush does not do what the rest of the world does because he knows best.

Mr. Bush’s government does not even have to adhere to the result of the Referendum and clearly his government is not going to do so, but the statements he made over the Thursday and Friday following the result “made my blood boil”!

Alden McLaughlin, the PPM leader, said a significant majority of voters made it plain that they want single member constituencies and the premier should respect the voice of the people. In response to Mr. Bush’s incredulous proposal of introducing nine double-member constituencies, he said:

“We do not need more discussions; we do not need more committees; we do not need more campaigning or another referendum. All that is required is a simple amendment to the Elections Law.”

On Mr. Bush’s equally galling statement that those who did not come to the polls were ‘no’ votes, Mr. McLaughlin added, that it was “disingenuous and grossly misleading. In truth and in fact the ‘yes’ votes outstripped the ‘no’ votes by 2 to 1.”

North Side MLA, Ezzard Miller, in a radio broadcast said, “In North Side, I have been given several reasons by registered voters as to why they did not turn up to the polls. “These include: sick at home, sick in hospital, off island, never votes for personal or religious reasons, too drunk at the party to vote, could not decide how to vote. Not a single person gave the reason that their not voting would count as a ‘no’ vote.”

A member of my own family could not turn up at the polling station to vote because she fell over and BROKE HER FOOT!

What makes me so mad is that no matter what the premier says, no matter how ridiculous it is, there are a number, and it is a lot more than one or two AGREE with what he said. It doesn’t matter that it has no basis for his conclusions. Now how dangerous is that?

I almost begged Mr. Bush to unite the country after the election and to put a huge “Band Aid” over the huge wound. What we got was a good dose of salt.

Mr. McLaughlin said the premier has demonstrated the “absolute disregard and utter contempt this UDP administration has for the people” and how out of touch government is.

Sadly, I have to concur.