Cayman Islands

Population Statistics

56,092

Total Population

8,414

Population with a disability

according to World Health Organization’s 15% estimate

Election Dates

Cayman Islands has not yet signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities


Elections Law (1983, last amended 2009)

Updated: June 2015

Section 13, subsection 3 states:

Every registering officer shall also, within the period specified in section 14(1), proceed to list the name, street address and occupation of every person qualified to vote for the election of the Assembly in the electoral district for which he has been appointed, and shall prepare such list from the current register from the applications in Form 4 that have been received, duly completed and signed and from the information obtained from the returns submitted to him under section 19 or 21. Provided that he may, on his own motion, place on such list any person whom he has reasonable grounds for believing is qualified to be registered and who he is satisfied is unable to complete Form 4 by reason either of blindness, illiteracy or any physical incapacity.

 

Section 47 states:

(2) The presiding officer shall instruct the elector how to make his mark, and shall properly fold the elector’s ballot paper, directing him to return it, when marked, folded as shown, without inquiring or seeing for whom the elector intends to vote, except when the elector is unable from physical or other disability from voting without assistance to vote in the manner prescribed by this Law…

(3) …the elector who shall deposit the ballot in the ballot box; except that where the elector is unable from physical or other disability to deposit the ballot in the ballot box, the presiding officer shall, on the elector’s behalf, deposit the ballot in the ballot box.

 

Section 49 states:

…(3) The presiding officer, on the application of any elector who is incapacitated from physical or other disability from voting without assistance in the manner prescribed by this Law, shall require the elector making such application to make oath in Form 28 of his incapacity to vote without assistance, and shall thereafter deal with such votes in the manner specified in subsection (4).

(4) If any such elector as is referred to in subsection (3) requests the assistance of the presiding officer in marking his ballot, the presiding officer shall thereafter assist such elector by marking his ballot paper in the manner directed by such elector in the presence of the poll clerk and, if so requested by the elector, the presence of a friend.

(5) Where an elector requires the presence of a friend in accordance with subsection (4) that person shall not be allowed to be present unless he first takes the oath in Form 29.

 

Section 50, subsection 1 states:

Subject to this section, where:

(a) an elector is unable or likely to be unable:

  • (i) to go in person to the polling station because he is or is likely be in a hospital, rest home or other similar institution, or because he is a geriatric at home;
  • (ii) by reason either of blindness or any other physical incapacity to in person to the polling station or, if able to go, to vote unaided…that elector is entitled to have his vote taken at a mobile station if, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time, he applies to be treated as an absent elector voting at a mobile station  and if his application is allowed by the registering officer under section 53.

 

Section 93 states:

Every election officer who:…

  • (b) permits a person, whom he knows or has reasonable cause to believe not be a person unable from physical or other disability to vote without assistance, to vote in the manner provided by Law for a person who is unable to from physical or other disability to vote without assistance…is guilty of an offence…

 

Excerpts from the Elections Law (1983, last amended 2009)

Cayman Islands Constitution Order (2009)

Updated: June 2015

Section 16 states:

(1) Subject to subsections (3), (4), (5) and (6), government shall not treat any person in a discriminatory manner in respect of the rights under this Part of the Constitution.

(2) In this section, ‘discriminatory’ means affording different and unjustifiable treatment to different persons on any ground such as…mental or physical disability…

 

Excerpt from the Cayman Islands Constitution Order (2009)