Cayman's New Coalition Government Takes Power

Cayman's Largest Party Locked Out as New Coalition Seizes Power in 24 Hours

The PPM won the most seats but fell short of a majority; two new parties and three independents stitched together a governing coalition within a day, installing André Ebanks as Premier and sidelining the People's Progressive Movement entirely.

On Wednesday 30 April 2025, the Cayman Islands went to the polls and returned a fractured Parliament: 19 MPs elected across four parties and no single bloc holding the 10 seats required to govern. Within 24 hours, the Caymanian Community Party (TCCP) and the Cayman Islands National Party (CINP) — two parties that did not exist 18 months ago — had locked in a coalition with three independents, securing 11 seats and the premiership. The People's Progressive Movement (PPM), which won seven seats to finish as the largest single party, was left on the opposition benches. Cayman Resident

The architecture of the deal is telling. TCCP leader André Ebanks, a former Deputy Premier with deep ties to the financial services sector, takes the top job as Premier. CINP leader Gary Rutty becomes Deputy Premier. The coalition rebranded itself as the "National Coalition For Caymanians," a name that signals both nationalist framing and a deliberate break from the PPM's brand of progressive politics. WikiMili

The Power Dynamic

This is not a story of electoral popularity. The PPM won the popular vote with 27.4% and claimed the most seats. But seat count is what matters in Cayman's first-past-the-post system, and the PPM's seven fell three short of a working majority. The two new parties — TCCP with 4 seats (26.9% of the vote) and CINP with 4 seats (19.5%) — together matched the PPM's haul. Four independents claimed the remainder, and three of them chose to govern with the newcomers rather than with the established opposition. Cayman Islands Partners

The speed of the coalition — concluded within 24 hours — strongly suggests pre-election coordination between the TCCP, CINP, and key independents. This is not unprecedented in Caymanian politics, where post-election negotiations are the norm, but it is a sharp rebuke to the PPM. Joey Hew, the PPM leader who now serves as Leader of the Opposition, denounced the arrangement as a "marriage of convenience," arguing that negotiations rather than voters had chosen the government. Cayman Resident

One independent, Christopher Saunders (Bodden Town West), opted to sit with the PPM rather than join the coalition. His choice underscores the fragility of the new government's majority — the coalition holds exactly 11 seats, the minimum needed to command the chamber.

The election also delivered a symbolic blow to the old guard. Julie Hunter, an independent running in West Bay West, defeated former Premier McKeeva Bush, a figure who has dominated Caymanian politics for decades. Bush's legal controversies — he was arrested in 2012 on corruption charges, later cleared — likely weighed on voters looking for renewal. Cayman Islands Partners

Turnout nationally was 74%, slightly below the 72.9% recorded by the Elections Office but still robust by regional standards. WikiMili

What the Referendum Reveals

Voters also faced three non-binding referendum questions on the same ballot. The results were a mixed signal: cruise berthing facilities were rejected by a nearly two-to-one margin — a decisive defeat for a project that had no location, no costings, and no environmental impact assessment. Voters said yes to decriminalising cannabis possession (55%) and introducing a national lottery (51%), but both margins were narrow and the results are advisory only. IEyeNews

The cruise berthing rejection is the most consequential. It removes a flagship infrastructure proposal from the government's toolkit and signals that environmental opposition — long a feature of Cayman's civic politics — can mobilise and win. The governing coalition now has no mandate to pursue the project, and the absence of any real plan for the facility meant voters were being asked to approve a blank cheque. They declined.

What to Watch Next

The coalition's majority is thin and untested. With exactly 11 seats, a single defection or a falling-out between the TCCP and CINP could collapse the government. The independents — Rolston Anglin, Johany Ebanks, and Isaac Rankine — hold disproportionate leverage; any one of them could trigger a realignment.

The PPM, with seven seats and a clear opposition leader in Joey Hew, will wait for cracks. The government formation also sidelines Juliana O'Connor-Connolly, the former Premier who joined the PPM to seek re-election and won her seat in Cayman Brac East. She now sits in opposition, a veteran figure with a long memory for coalition betrayals.

The pressing policy agenda — public finances, population growth, immigration reform, traffic, education — will test whether the National Coalition for Caymanians can govern as more than an anti-PPM marriage of convenience. The next decision point is the Throne Speech, when the Ebanks government must lay out its legislative agenda. The date has not yet been set, but it will come by mid-2025. That is when the coalition's coherence — or lack of it — becomes visible.