Cayman’s Opposition Leader, Roy McTaggart filed a motion of ‘Lack of Confidence” in the Speaker, McKeeva Bush, after the deadline given by Premier Wayne Panton for him to demit office passed without him doing so.
Panton had given Bush, a former premier, until 5.00 p.m. on September 23, to submit his resignation as speaker amid allegations of “reported misconduct” at a government cocktail reception in September.
McTaggart said the incident led to “an investigation by the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service and has been reported in the local and international press.”
In his motion, the Opposition Leader said Bush, who was elected Speaker following the April 14, 2021, general election, had prior to the polls “pleaded guilty” before the Summary Court on December 3, 2020, to two charges of assault and one charge of disorderly conduct and was sentenced to two months imprisonment, which was suspended for two years.
He said Governor Martyn Roper, the premier, and himself “have all publicly called on the speaker to resign from the role.”
But he noted that the deadline given for him to do so by Premier Panton “has passed and the premier has so far initiated no public action to cause the speaker to resign or be removed.
“It has been increasingly obvious to me over the past week that despite his letter demanding the resignation of the Hon. McKeeva Bush as speaker, the premier does not appear to have any intention of acting to ensure the removal of Mr. Bush from the post.
“The most recent confirmation of this is the premier’s excuse that the Opposition’s filing of a motion of a Lack of Confidence in the Government somehow complicates his handling of the matter of Mr. Bush and he went on to question the Opposition’s priorities,” McTaggart said, in reference to his other motion filed this month against Premier Panton saying that the government in this British overseas territory is “beset by controversies of its own making; mired in confusion and internal division, and incapable of effective action”.
The Opposition Leader said he hopes that the motion of no confidence against the premier will be dealt with when the Parliament next meets on October 5.
CMC/
