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(CNS): The opposition leader called on members of the PACT bench to start the process of forming a new government by voting theirs down Tuesday in parliament. Roy McTaggart said there were two ways that could happen, one was for some PACT members to cross the floor and join a Progressives led coalition and the other was to reform PACT under a new leader.
The special meeting to debate a no confidence motion in PACT however, got off to a slow start, with no comment on the issue from any of the government members before the sitting was adjourned for lunch.
The meeting started at around 10:30am but was almost immediately adjourned after, McKeeva Bush (WBW) said he wanted to move an amendment to the PPM leader’s no confidence motion in government, just after McTaggart presented it to the members. Bush said he wanted it to be changed to a lack of confidence in the leadership, specifically targeting Premier Wayne Panton.
McTaggart revealed that Bush had not discussed this with him and so asked for an adjournment to enable that discussion to take place. As a result the members were behind closed doors for another 30 minutes before returning to debate the original motion, shelving Bush’s amendment.
The opposition leader spoke for less than forty minutes as he outlined the reasons why the opposition had called for the special meeting. He said he liked and respected the premier, a former PPM colleague, but he needed to step down as it was clear things were not working.
Government, he added, had been going through a slow process of disintegration, fueled by the divisions and disagreements that had been allowed to grow and fester because of poor leadership from the premier.
With Bush’s resignation last week McTaggart said it was no longer viable and the “buck stops with the premier as he is captain of PACT ship.”
A lack of confidence, the opposition leader said, was a tool not to be used lightly. But he explained that with PACT no longer commanding a majority it was dependent on the opposition to call a meeting of parliament and get its business through. Given that he said the first thing that needed to happen to restore stable government to the country was for those on the government benches to vote this government down.
He said even if the current speaker steps down and returns to the government back bench paving the way for a speaker from outside the parliament, he said, Panton would still have only a knife edge majority. This wouldn’t address the problem of his leadership and the continued divisions in Cabinet over the forthcoming budget and the clock was ticking on the legal requirement to have the legislation for that budget completed and implemented before the end of the year.
“We are here today because the PACT can’t even carry out the most fundamental functions of government and this all lies at the premier’s door,” McTaggart said, adding that all the evidence suggested Panton was not up to the job of premier.
Well aware that the PACT members were going to be reluctant to vote for their own demise the opposition leader said they should put the country first and start the process of forming a new stable government.
He laid out two choices.
The first he said was for some PACT members to join a Progrssive led government. McTaggart named no names but said there were a few people still on the PACT bench that the PPM would be very happy to work with who he said he knew had already been to Panton and asked him to step down. The alternative, he said, was if the premier stepped down and another PACT member took over as premier the group may be able to form a new more stable government by recruiting back old members.
But either way to get there they would need to support McTaggart’s motion. If they did not, he said, they would be voting to support a failed premier and would be tied to that choice which would come back to haunt them at the next election.
“Now is time for those on government benches who know the truth to speak the truth in public,” McTaggart said. “The country needs and deserves stability,” he added.
He was then followed by a long and rambling contribution from Chis Saunders (BTW) who said very little about why he would be voting for or against the motion or the current situation in government. He said it was not his practice to say bad things about Caymanians.
Instead he used up almost all of his two hour allotted time to talk about his own political career and opinions on one subject after another that did not relate to the motion.
He said however, his vote on the no confidence motion would be dependent on whether or not parliament would meet again next week to pass legislation for his recent private member’s motion allowing people to withdraw money from their pension to pay off their mortgage could be brought and debated.
After Saunders wrapped up his speech the house was adjourned and was expected to return at 1:45pm.
See the morning session on CIGTV below
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