Cayman’s Opposition leader, Roy McTaggart, says he has filed a motion of no confidence in Premier Wayne Panton, saying the government in the British Overseas Territory is “beset by controversies of its own making; mired in confusion and internal division, and incapable of effective action.
“I have today filed in Parliament a motion of ‘Lack of Confidence in the Government. The motion is…supported by the entire Opposition,” Roy McTaggart said, adding “our islands are facing significant challenges, and we cannot afford a government asleep at the wheel”.
The Opposition Leader said there are those in government “whom we believe wish to see the country progress and are very capable if given the opportunity and the right environment.
“Several of them have spoken to us about their frustrations with the current leadership, or lack of leadership, and the general unease in their Caucus. I urge them to vote in favor of this motion when it comes to Parliament.
“By voting in the affirmative, they will be voting for a fresh start and will have taken a patriotic step in helping rescue our Islands from a state of malaise,” he added.
The general election was held in the Cayman Islands on April 14, last year to elect the 19 members of the Parliament.
The polls had originally been set for May 26, but Premier Alden McLaughlin asked Governor Martyn Roper to dissolve Parliament on February 14, triggering the early election.
Political observers said then that the move was made in order to avoid a no-confidence motion against Speaker McKeeva Bush, who had received a two-month suspended jail sentence in December 2020 for assaulting a woman in February 2020.
Bush is now the subject of yet another call for his resignation as Speaker, with the Governor saying that “inappropriate behavior towards women should not be tolerated in any society” amid allegations that while intoxicated, he sexually harassed at least two women at a cocktail party hosted by the Tourism Ministry during a Caribbean Tourism Organization conference last week.
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