[Caribbean360) – It appears that Alden McLaughlin will remain premier of the Cayman Islands. At least that’s what is in the works now, in what has turned out to be a series of deals and counter-deals made in the effort to form a new government, after independent candidates won the lion share of seats in the Legislative Assembly in last Wednesday’s general election.

Last Friday, it was first announced that McLaughlin’s incumbent Progressive People’s Movement (PPM) had struck a deal with the opposition Cayman Democratic Party (CDP) led by McKeeva Bush. Under that agreement, McLaughlin would have remained Premier and Bush would have been Speaker of the House.

But hours later, Bush announced that his party had instead decided to form a government of national unity with eight of the nine independents who won seats in the election. Joining with him and his other two successful party candidates, they were to form the new government with 11 seats in the 19-member Legislative Assembly, with Bush as Premier.

“After numerous calls from my West Bay constituencies and from voters across the wider eastern independent representative districts, I, William McKeeva Bush, and my colleagues have therefore withdrawn our support for the PPM to form the next government and have agreed to form the next government with the independent candidates,” Bush, who served as premier from 2009 to 2012 and is the longest serving member of the Legislative Assembly, had said in a statement explaining the about-turn.

Reacting to the news, McLaughlin had accused Dr Steve Tomlinson, who had financed several independent candidates during the election, for causing the about turn, and warned citizens that it would not end well.

“I am going to stand back and watch this train wreck of a government happen. I have done my best to form a good, stable government, but the unelected Premier Dr Tomlinson has brokered another deal that serves McKeeva’s ambition but will also allow the good doctor to stand outside Cabinet and dictate policy. It is going to be one hell of a ride. We should not expect this government to last very long. Brace for a period of great uncertainty in this country,” he told the Cayman Compass newspaper.

But by Monday, news had broken that the second deal was no longer on the cards and that McLaughlin, whose party won 7 seats in the election, would join with independents to form the new government.