Hugh: Voters need to be more informed about politics: Cayman News Service

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(CNS) – Progressives leader-designate Joey Hew says he and his party will make a concerted effort in the coming weeks to raise voter awareness of how government and politics work in the Cayman Islands. Hew says a poll and roundtable discussion commissioned by the party showed a lack of voter understanding of the state of local governance and the political system, an issue that needs to be addressed.

Consultants hired by the Progressives to survey voters found that as the only established political party, the Progressives had a responsibility to educate the voting public on these issues and suggested that they take on the job of explaining how party politics works.

Last week, Hew spoke on Cayman Radio, explaining the difference between running on a party platform and running as an independent, and how party manifestos form the basis of policy when a government is elected. He contrasted this with the “experiment” that followed the last election, which saw a government made up almost entirely of independents with a completely different agenda.

“I’m a firm believer in organized politics because we all sing the same song from the same hymnbook… and share the same policy agenda and the manifesto that guides it,” he said, adding that the manifesto “is not set in stone because things change” as changes from the outside might affect tourism or financial services.

But generally speaking, anyone running for office as a party will support the same policy agenda, which was formed and agreed upon before the election.

He rejected the view that the 2021 election result was a rejection of party politics as eight people, including current Prime Minister Juliana O’Connor-Connolly, had run under the PPM and were returning to politics.

However, he said that after the election results were announced, the Progressives believed they would form a government. Before election day, they had formed an alliance with several independent candidates who they expected to join forces with them after they were elected. But the fact is that all the independent candidates decided overnight to form a government with Wayne Panton.

O’Connor-Connolly and later Dwayne Seymour also joined the PACT coalition, while the PPM was in opposition.

He said that by 2025, the Popular Front intends to field candidates in at least 12 constituencies and hopes to have candidates in all 19 constituencies if it can find the right candidates.

Hugh explained the PPM party constitution and how it selects candidates and leaders, and then went into how the country’s constitution provides for changes in leaders and leadership, which will occur when Hugh takes over from the current PPM leader, Roy McTaggart.

McTaggart will step down as Opposition Leader after the Progressives elected Hew as leader at their party convention and the Premier will swear in Hew as his successor. Hew will lead the Opposition in the final months of the government’s term before heading up the campaign for next year’s general election.

He promoted the concept of party politics, where voters knew before the election what policies party candidates would support and who would be their leader, and compared it to the current situation, where no one actually votes for either the PACT or UPM governments.

He criticized the idea that independent thinkers could form a successful government, noting that it was very difficult to make policy when people disagreed, so it was important for the public to know more about how the system worked before the country went to elections again.

Hew said he had carefully considered the advice of advisers that “as the only political party in the country, we have a responsibility to educate our people about government.”