TCI News Now!

By David Tapfer

Hooray! Elections have been called and the call came earlier than expected. Word had leaked out last month that the call would come late this month and yet less than two weeks into the month Hague himself upstaged Minister Bellingham's surprise visit.

David Tapfer is a retired, US-born engineer and management executive. He is the former chairman of the Middle Caicos Branch of the Peoples Democratic Movement

With the PNP party getting reformed with hands across the table it appears they will soon have their candidates selected and begin the campaign... next week. Have they saved any of their campaign funds? I bet they have, except they may, however, be pesos from the DR or Venezuela.

Some believe that some of the party members are on Garlick’s short list. Her arms length separation from Governor Wetherell has seemingly been replaced with networking with Governor Ric. As usual, we just don't know. Interesting is the PNP deputy, a QC who has come out rejecting Garlick and the rule of law.

The PDM is still not settled on anything and they are due to have another delayed convention complete with elections and possible rejections. If the current leader is rejected after the election call, what an embarrassment for him and the party. They have after all only had eight years to get their house in order. In the eight years they turned away from one leader who has the financial credentials to straighten out our biggest problem -- massive debt. They also turned away from the most articulate and visionary spokesman ever to wear a blue cap and returned leadership to where 10 percent of the population resides, Grand Turk. It will certainly be interesting to see how the PDM reacts to this news.

With voter registrations going so slow, it appears no one expected the election call this soon. The British government must now reject the end of June registration deadline. It is taking months to issue a birth certificate for people born of TCI parents right here in TCI. The Brits will have to light a fire under those left over civil servants charged with sending the needed documents. How about those TCI folk born in The Bahamas of TCI born parents? Will someone please expedite those documents as well?

Also an issue are those coming of voting age between June 30 and November 9. Are they to be disenfranchised, rejected? ...Shame!

When Governor Wetherell arrived in mid-2008, he grabbed the checkbook, so financial direct rule has been with us for almost four years. The balanced budget milestone continues as a millstone but the checkbook will remain in the hands of Britain for three more years. The Tories do not dare send a $260 million check or the Labour-favoured UK media will roast them. Will an elected government reject a VAT tax passed next month but not implemented until five months after the swearing in?

What I find interesting in this mix is the status of the former premier. The AG has issued a red notice, yet no one seems interested in picking the man up. Has he become a “man without a country” He cannot come home or land in his second home, and the home of his children, Miami. This is in fact another kind of rejection, with a possible life sentence.

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