By Peter Polack

Peter Polack

In 2017, a Cayman Islands political candidate, named as Candidate X, was barred from running in that election year by the former Chief Justice for the youthful indiscretion of borrowing a bicycle without permission referred to as dishonesty by the court. Although named as Candidate X because of the young age of the offender at that time, his identity was known by almost everyone in the small Cayman Islands. His identity could also have been revealed by a process of deduction from election lists.

The entire Caribbean will laugh at this, given the questionable behavior of many leaders and others.

In that same year, Nickolas DaCosta, the present Minister of Home Affairs, was barred from participating in that election because of his American citizenship.

Although not an exclusive list, at least two other, later elected, politicians had faced the court for misdeeds, before those events.

That same year, a politician was elected, having come before the court in 2015 for grabbing a woman by the throat and admitting the offence, but no conviction was recorded. The subsequent election victory for that candidate was even more lucky given the majority of women voters in the Cayman Islands.

Another candidate, convicted of supplying cocaine to undercover police officers, went on to become a successful member of parliament and Minister of Tourism.

So there is the panel for fair selection. A drug dealer, a woman beater, a man who has sworn loyalty to another country and a child who took a bicycle.

There can be no question as to who is at the bottom of this moral turpitude and who should be the most likely to qualify to contest an election. Perhaps some are afraid of Bicycle Boy.

There are other elected and appointed officials with criminal convictions walking the halls of power. Ex Officio members of a cabinet or parliamentary secretaries, especially in key portfolios, should renounce any dual citizenship or cancel any questionable visa loyalty. To do otherwise is to hold politicians to a higher benchmark while still making critical decisions for a country.

In Jamaica, a former House of Parliament speaker, later convicted of a criminal offence for breach of integrity rules or what a court could call dishonesty, resigned before being re-elected.

The Jamaican leader of the opposition has had to do just that, renounce his UK citizenship, the right thing to do. How many on the other side of the aisle in parliament have questionable visa loyalty or integrity. They should disabuse the nation of those questionable connections given recent events.

It should be one rule for all.

There is time before the next election to level the playing field.

Holier than thou or some more equal than others.

Notes 

https://www.caymancompass.com/2017/04/18/candidate-x-disqualified-over-criminal-conviction

https://www.caymancompass.com/2015/05/22/austin-harris-admits-drunken-assault-on-woman

Women electors outnumber men in most constituencies

https://www.caymancompass.com/2007/02/23/two-jailed-for-supplying-cocaine

https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20250215/dalrymple-philibert-pay-900000

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer from the Cayman Islands for several decades. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. 

His views are his own.