The Elections Office has "received feedback" on its referral of the Progressives' 2025 campaign overspend to the police, it told The Caymanian Journal (TCJ), and points to the Director of Public Prosecutions for the outcome.

Answering eight questions TCJ emailed on 30 October, the office said on 6 November that "the campaign finance overspend was referred to the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service (RCIPS) on 16 June 2025" and that it "has no record of any referral, charge or fine under sections 67, 69 or 71 at previous general elections", which makes the June 2025 referral the first of its kind on its record. On the outcome it said: "The Elections Office has received feedback on the referral. Questions about the outcome should be directed to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions." The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) has published no decision in the matter.

The reply comes as Parliament prepares to sit on 18 November, six weeks before 2026 ends, with no Elections (Amendment) Bill published. Premier André Ebanks MP told Parliament on 17 October 2025, answering a question from Kenneth Bryan MP on the 2025 Domestic Observer Mission report, that campaign finance reform and a review of expenditure limits had "received Caucus support in principle" and that "Draft legislation will then be advanced to this honourable House for debate, and hopefully passage, as soon as feasible in 2026". TCJ confirmed the 18 November sitting date with Parliament by telephone on 6 November. No Bill had been published on parliament.ky or legislation.gov.ky by that date; one can still be brought at the November sitting or at any further sitting before the year ends, and the Premier's answer set no date within the year. The CI$40,000 per-candidate spending limit at the centre of the case has not changed since 2016.

What the Elections Office now says

The office's referral went to the police on the same day the Cayman Islands Government published a release saying submissions concerning the party "are currently being prepared for referral to the appropriate authorities, in accordance with Section 67(5)". Asked whether a report had been made to the Director of Public Prosecutions, the office said: "No report was made directly to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The matter was referred to the RCIPS on 16 June 2025. The RCIPS investigates and prepares case files for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The Elections Office considers that this referral meets the requirements of section 71(5)." Section 71(5) provides that where the Supervisor "has reason to believe that any person has committed an offence against these provisions, the Supervisor shall report the facts on which that belief is based to the Director of Public Prosecutions".

The Progressives, the People's Progressive Movement, declared CI$699,751.02 of spending for 12 candidates. The office told TCJ that it applies the limit by multiplying CI$40,000 by the number of candidates a party return covers, giving CI$480,000 for 12; on those figures the declared spending was CI$219,751.02 over. Its summary of returns, updated 13 June 2025, carries a note that "1 PPM Candidate Filed independently". The office said that candidate was Juliana O'Connor-Connolly MP in Cayman Brac East, who reported CI$13,818.86, that "the party return covered all 13 PPM candidates, including that candidate", and that the returns "were assessed both separately and together"; "on either basis, the limit was exceeded". It added that "there is no legal provision which requires all candidates for a political party to have a combined campaign finance return filed by the party on behalf of all candidates".

What is at stake

Section 67(2) of the Elections Act (2022 Revision) provides that "the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred in respect of a candidate at an election shall be forty thousand dollars". Under section 67(5) "a political party which acts in contravention of this section commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine of twenty-five thousand dollars", a sum equal to 11.4% of the amount by which the Progressives' declared spending exceeded the allowance for 12 candidates. Under section 67(4) "a candidate who knowingly acts in contravention of this section commits an illegal practice", for which section 102(2) sets "a fine of five hundred dollars or to imprisonment for six months". No candidate has been accused of a knowing breach.

The Act attaches a heavier consequence to an illegal practice, but only through an election petition. Section 87 provides that an elected candidate certified by the judge trying a petition "to have been personally guilty or guilty by that person's agents of any corrupt or illegal practice" loses the seat: "that person's election shall be void". Section 86 requires a petition "within twenty-one days after the return made by the returning officer", a window that closed for the 2025 election in May 2025. What remains for the 2025 overspend is the party fine and, for any candidate found to have knowingly breached the limit, the section 102(2) penalty. Unless the Act is amended, the same limit and penalties apply at the next general election.

What was promised, and what has followed

Between June 2025 and November 2026 the public record shows the following. On 16 June 2025 the Elections Office referred the Progressives' campaign expenditure to the RCIPS. On 17 June 2025 the Progressives said in a statement that they were "calling for a meaningful review of the Cayman Islands' outdated election rules" and "calling on the Government to act swiftly during this parliamentary term". On 25 June 2025 the Governor told Parliament that both observer missions had "raised again the need to update our campaign financing rules" and called the matter "a gap worthy of consideration at an early stage of this Parliament". On 5 August 2025, the Supervisor of Elections, Wesley Howell, told TCJ, he "presented proposals to amend the Elections Act to the Government caucus", covering "the expenditure limit, returns, disclosure requirements and penalties". On 17 October 2025 the Premier told the House that the Supervisor "has therefore been requested by the NCFC Caucus to develop a proposal paper to set out specific recommended amendments for consideration with a view to Cabinet approval of drafting instructions", followed by the draft legislation quoted above. On 19 June 2026 the Governor referred to the Premier's "stated intent to reform our elections law, including as it pertains to campaign financing rules". On 6 November 2026 there is no Bill.

The party's position

The Progressives said in their statement of 17 June 2025 that their spending exceeded the limit. "This was never intentional, and we regret it sincerely," a party spokesperson said in the statement, which put the limit at CI$40,000 per candidate, or CI$520,000 across the party's 13 candidates. The spokesperson said: "Four candidates joined the party just days before Nomination Day, and some had already spent campaign funds independently." The statement added: "Rebranding materials like signs and brochures with the PPM logo and colours led to duplicated costs." The 12 candidates covered by the party return include the party's leader, Joseph Hew MP, who is Leader of the Opposition, and Kenneth Bryan MP, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

Where the limit came from

The CI$40,000 figure dates from 24 October 2016, when the then member for East End, Arden McLean, moved in committee on the Election (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to replace separate limits for party and independent candidates with "forty thousand dollars". The Premier of the day, Alden McLaughlin, told the Legislative Assembly: "I am happy to tell the Member that the Government is prepared to accept that amendment." Mr McLean said, the Hansard record shows: "I was reluctant bringing this one because [CI]$40,000 is not going to do it for us either, but, be it as it may, let someone else change it later." Law 45 of 2016 came into force on 28 March 2017, and no one has changed the figure since.

The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association British Islands and Mediterranean Region observer mission's final report on the 2025 election, published in April 2025, found that "most candidates that the mission met with criticised this spending cap as outdated and insufficient, given rising campaign costs", and its sixth recommendation was to "review the campaign finance regulations, including the reporting requirements for candidates who are not elected, the expenditure limit for candidates, the lack of regulations regarding foreign donors, and reporting accrued campaign costs". Whether a Bill answering it reaches the House on 18 November or before the year ends, and whether the first referral made under the present rules ends in a charge, a fine or a closed file, are the two questions the record leaves open.