GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands – Government
has today gazetted a bill entitled “A Bill For A Law To Provide For
The Holding Of A People-Initiated Referendum On The Issue Of Whether
the Islands Should Continue To Move forward With The Building Of The
Cruise Berthing And Enhanced Cargo Port Facility; And For Incidental
and Connected Purposes”’.

The Bill provides for the holding of a referendum
under Section 70 of the Constitution of the Cayman Islands. Cabinet
has determined that the referendum will be held on Thursday, December
19th 2019. Whilst referendum day will
be a public holiday, licensed bars and similar establishments will be
permitted to remain open to minimise disruption during the holiday
season.

As required by the Constitution, the Cabinet has
settled the referendum question, which will be:

“Should the Cayman Islands continue to
move forward with building the cruise berthing and enhanced cargo
port facility?”

The response to the question will be a simple
‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Settling the question

In respect of the question to be asked in any
people-initiated referendum, Section 70 (2) (b): of the Cayman
Islands Constitutional Order, 2009, provides that “the Cabinet
shall settle the wording of a referendum question or questions within
a reasonable time period as prescribed by law”.

No guidance is given in the Constitution on how
Cabinet should go about settling the wording and there is no direct
Cayman Islands precedent. However, there are some

common sense and natural justice principles that
can be drawn upon. These suggest that Cabinet should construct a
question that, as far as possible, is:

• clear and simple, easy to understand and
  written in plain language;
  
  
• to the point, that is directed at the core
  issue in contention;
  
• definitive and not ambiguous or open to a
  variety of interpretations; and
  
  
• neutral, which means the wording should not
  create any encouragement for voters to consider one response more
  favourably than another and should not mislead voters.
  

Cabinet has followed the above criteria in
settling the question, and has also had regard to the Council of
Europe’s Commission for Democracy Through Law (the Venice
Commission) in its Code of Good Practice on Referendums.

In addition, Cabinet sought to ensure that the
referendum question reflected the intention of the petitioners,
specifically Cruise Port Referendum Cayman (CPR). The wording of the
CPR referendum petition did not readily assist in helping determine a
question that met the criteria above as it is not written in plain
language, nor does it set out any definitive proposition. Rather it
simply asks that “the proposed cruise berthing facility……be
decided solely by referendum”.

However, CPR’s initial referendum website
(https://cprcayman9.wixsite.com/website)
offers two similar rationales for the petition that people were being
asked to sign. First, it states: “The purpose of the Petition
is….to bring about a people-initiated referendum in which
registered voters can vote through ballot ‘Yes’ or ‘No’
on whether the country should proceed with the proposed
Cruise Berthing Facility.” (emphasis added)

Secondly, it states “The aim of this petition
is…to start a people-initiated referendum…on whether the country
should move forward with the proposed Cruise Berthing
Facility.” (emphasis added)

These statements make clear the underpinning
rationale for the CPR petition and can be relied upon to represent
what it was people were signing up for when they put their names to
the petition. Taken together, therefore, they provided a starting
point for the Cabinet in drafting an appropriate question, including
the question requiring a clear yes or no response.

Whilst the petitioners have focused solely on
cruise berthing, an enhanced cargo port has always been an intrinsic
part of the Government’s plans to provide for a long-needed, modern
port facility that includes cruise berthing and an enhanced
cargo port.

In 2015 Premier Hon. Alden McLaughlin confirmed to
the country, at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, that “Government
has considered the matter carefully and has agreed on the merits of
building a cruise port and an enhanced cargo port and to allow the
project to proceed to the next stage.” This public statement
made it clear that there was one project that includes both cruise
berthing and an enhanced cargo port. In fact references to both were
included in many public statements including statements made in the
Legislative Assembly. And of course both an enhanced cargo port and
cruise ship berthing were included in the request for proposal during
the project procurement stage.

Therefore any referendum question on moving
forward with cruise berthing must include an enhanced cargo port as
well.

The Attorney General was consulted in the
development of the question and external legal advice was also
sought. It was determined that the four principles and the approach
taken in settling the question were correct and met appropriate
tests.

The referendum date

The choice of the referendum date is based in
large part on the various processes required by law to get to a point
where the Issuing of Writs can be made to the Supervisor of Elections
so as to confer on him the authority to conduct a referendum. These
include:

• Cabinet to settle the referendum question
  
  
• Drafting of the Referendum Bill
  
  
• Gazettal of the Referendum Bill for 21 days
  
• Debate and passage of the Referendum Bill in
  the Legislative Assembly
  
• Assent and gazettal of the Referendum Law and
  the Issuing of Writs to the Supervisor of Elections.
  

In addition to the above processes, sufficient
time is needed to allow the Elections Office to plan for and carry
out their duties – including providing for postal and mobile
voting.

The Supervisor of Elections has
confirmed that given the staff training and other preparations
that the Elections Office has already undertaken, he is confident
that the Elections Office will be operationally and logistically
ready to meet the timeline of 19th
December for the holding of the referendum.

With the
Gazettal of the Referendum Bill and the setting of the date for the
referendum the Government looks forward to settling this issue and
determining whether the Country supports continuing to move forward
with building the cruise berthing and enhanced cargo port facility.