Dear Editor,
Contrary to what a number of contributors have said, Guyana does not forbid dual citizenship. What is forbidden is membership of the National Assembly if an individual is, “by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance to any foreign power or state”. An individual may be a dual citizen through no act of his own. Guyana, like many countries, has citizenship by birth. If you are born here, with the sole exception being the child of a foreign diplomat, you are a citizen of Guyana. But, in common with a number of other countries, Guyana also recognizes as citizenship by descent – the children of Guyanese by birth, wherever those children may be born. My children are dual citizens. They were born in Guyana, and thus were Guyanese by birth, but their father is a Vincentian by birth. So although they were born in Guyana, they are also recognized by St Vincent’s Constitution as Vincentian citizens by descent. There are also children born in Guyana of Vincentians who came to Guyana during the colonial days to work in the gold fields, who are also Vincentians by descent. That is through no act of theirs. The children born to Guyanese by birth who migrated to another country which recognizes citizenship by birth – Canada, for example – are also dual citizens. But again this is through no act of their own.
It is those Guyanese, who migrate and apply for and are granted citizenship of another country who are prohibited from becoming MPs. They have chosen to become citizens of another country. They can live and work in Guyana as long as they remain Guyanese citizens, but they cannot be MPs.
I am not sure what now happens if the individual is an American by birth (like Mrs Jagan, for example – not a voluntary act on her part) who marries a Guyanese and comes to Guyana and becomes a Guyanese citizen. What happens if the constitution of the birth country has no provision for the renunciation of citizenship by citizens by birth? I would think that such a person should be allowed to become an MP, since the individual did nothing to become a citizen of the foreign country; but at the same time I would not be surprised if the matter were to be taken to court by an opposing political party for a ruling.
Yours faithfully,
Pat Robinson Commissiong