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(CNS): Following the departure of Chris Saunders from the PACT Government on Tuesday, Opposition Leader Roy McTaggart said that it “hardly comes as a surprise” as cracks within PACT had been apparent from the start. Speaking on behalf of the Progressives, he said Panton now had the “slimmest of majorities” but added, “We do hope that he will be able to hold his government together despite this.”
Following the announcement from the premier’s office, Government Information Services requested the local media attend a press briefing in the evening. But moments before the conference was due to go live, members of the media were told we would not be allowed to ask any questions.
Instead, the premier, surrounded by the remaining nine PACT MPs, read out the statement released that morning.
It is not clear why the press was asked to attend if the government was not prepared to answer any questions directly. CNS immediately submitted a number of questions in writing in relation to the announcement, and we continue to await an official response to any of them.
We have also tried to contact Saunders to address some of the allegations about him that may have led to his departure, but so far, we have been unable to reach him. According to sources close to events, it appears that Saunders did not resign but was fired as a result of allegations that he has been trying to run what one insider told CNS was a “shadow government within the government”.
The Progressives have also accused PACT of failing to get things done because of “three or four different factions in the same Cabinet” that were undermining the process of collective responsibility. As the Cayman Islands follows a Westminster style of government, this means that Cabinet members must be aligned and present a collective position on government policy.
The opposition leader is, however, making political capital out of Saunders’ departure from what he has said is a government with no clear strategy. McTaggart suggested the Cabinet reshuffle might “help the government regroup so that it can now focus on delivering solutions to the challenges the country is facing rather than its own internal divisions”.
After the reshuffle Dwayne Seymour, who ran as an independent aligned with the PPM during the 2021 elections but joined PACT in November 2021, is now the minister for Labour and Border Control. He is the second former PPM-aligned minister to sit in the PACT Cabinet, as Juliana O’Connor-Connolly joined the group on the eve of this administration’s swearing-in ceremony.
The loss of Saunders and the uncertainty about where McKeeva Bush’s loyalties lie suggest that PACT could now be facing eight MPs in opposition. With Kathy Ebanks-Wilks in the speaker’s chair, PACT retains ten votes in parliament, which is a sufficient majority to hold onto government but, as McTaggart pointed out, is the “slimmest of majorities”.
Speaking on the Resh Hour this week, the opposition leader said it would give the opposition the ability to undermine and embarrass the government. It would only take two PACT MPs to be outside the chamber during a debate on legislation for the opposition to force a vote and then vote down the government’s agenda.
“They need to have all their people in a seat if they want to ensure the passage of anything,” he said, as he reflected on the PPM’s own challenges with a slim majority. “You have to have somebody watching out all the time… One of the weapons the opposition has… if they see there is a minority of the government bench in there, it can call for a vote.”
McTaggart said such strategies are part of politics, hinting that the opposition would now be watching closely. The PPM has no immediate plans for a no-confidence vote, which he described as another weapon, as McTaggart said it was too early to make that move.
However, in the press release from the opposition about Saunders’ resignation from PACT, he claimed that the Progressives were hoping that Panton would be “able to hold his government together”.
McTaggart said there were real concerns about the impact on the local economy and the business community this division has caused, especially given the lack of transparency over the rift.
See the PACT press briefing below:
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