Opposition leader Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said that two of his party’s Members of Parliament (MPs) have indicated their intention to relinquish their foreign citizenship, while he accused the government of duplicity by failing to address those within its ranks with dual citizenship.
At a press conference yesterday at his Church Street, Georgetown office, Jagdeo disclosed that PPP/C MPs Odinga Lumumba and Gail Teixeira have both indicated to him that they would “relinquish their foreign citizenship.” He added that he had to discuss the issue with a third PPP/C MP, Adrian Anamayah. Both Lumumba and Anamayah are said to have US citizenship, while Teixeira has Canadian citizenship.
Jagdeo used the occasion to chide the government for allowing Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge, who has British citizenship, to perform presidential duties following the passage of the no-confidence motion against government on December 21st last.
Greenidge, when contacted subsequently on whether he will relinquish his foreign citizenship, made it known that he is still in talks with his attorneys on the way forward.
“You cannot be convenient in the arguing or upholding of the court and then deal with this matter in such a duplicitous manner… almost without decency, absolutely no decency,” Jagdeo said after making reference to comments made by Greenidge about government respecting the constitution and Chief Whip Amna Ally recently telling the media that the dual citizens on the government side will return to the National Assembly when it reconvenes.
Jagdeo began his press conference by addressing what he described as the “duplicitous” behaviour of the David Granger-led government regarding the no-confidence motion.
Noting that the High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled that dual citizens are not eligible to be selected to sit in the National Assembly and that a special arrangement may be required to displace them, he questioned the reasoning for government’s decision to continue violating the law.
“At least, morally, if the courts rule and you argue as a government that res-pects the court ruling, then you should not have dual citizens attend the parliament and they should all immediately resign as ministers of the government because they hold the ministerial post, most of them, by virtue of being members of the National Assembly,” Jagdeo said, while noting that compounding this situation was the fact that Greenidge acted as president.
‘One way or another’
Repeating previous comments, he said that the PPP/C’s MPs with dual citizenship would not attend any sitting of the National Assembly and also maintained that the opposition on the whole will not attend any sitting before the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) makes a decision on the no-confidence vote. He expects a decision to be handed down before the end of April.
“We do not want to go to Parliament and if the CCJ upholds the no confidence motion then every activity done by this government after the 21st of March would have been illegal, including the holding of the National Assembly and we don’t want to be complicit in illegalities…,” he said.
Asked if his dual citizen MPs will relinquish their foreign allegiance even if the CCJ ruling doesn’t go in the opposition’s favour, he responded in the affirmative. “Yeah. They are gonna relinquish, one way or another. They are going to relinquish the citizenship,” he said.
According to Article 155 (1) (a) of the constitution, “No person shall be qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly who is, by virtue of his or her own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.”
Ally was quoted in another section of the media earlier this week as saying that the government’s dual citizen MPs will be returning to parliament since no court action has been filed preventing them from doing so.
President Granger said on Wednesday that the National Assembly will soon be reconvened to approve the $3.5 million recently requested by the Chairman of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) James Patterson for the holding of general elections. He could not give a definitive date but noted that now that Cabinet meetings have resumed, the required bill for the sum can now be dealt with and submitted to the National Assembly.
Aside from Greenidge, the other government MPs who are dual citizens are Minister of State Joseph Harmon, who holds US citizenship, and Minister of Public Service Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin, who both hold British citizenship.
While Greenidge spoke to Stabroek News on the matter yesterday, Harmon and Gaskin could not be reached. Roopnaraine had previously indicated that he will relinquish his foreign citizenship if it becomes necessary.
Repeated calls to Harmon’s number went unanswered and his office later said that he was busy and was going to be engaged in meetings all day. Gaskin could not be reached on his number.
‘Dimensions unclear’
Asked how he intends to proceed with this issue, Greenidge told Stabroek News, “I am not in a position to make an announcement on the matter at this point.”
He noted that the pronouncements of both the Chief Justice and the Court of Appeal are the subject of public debate and are being considered by lawyers. “Not all aspects of all the decisions are either clear or do they find agreement in all quarters, so I am not in a position to say more than that at this point in time,” he said.
Asked if he will be in Parliament if it reconvenes in two weeks, he said that he will deal with that issue when that time comes. “Nothing happens with me…I am not going to say anything about that now. It’s something I am getting advice on and as regards the attendance you will know either on the day or close to the date,” he added.
The minister noted that while those who are not so well informed are focusing on dual citizenship, the legislation and the point on which the lawyers are concentrating on has to do with the ones who have sworn allegiance to a foreign state. He said that the question of what constitutes swearing allegiance arises.
“There are lots of dimensions that are unclear,” he stressed, before adding that one of the terrible things about Guyana is that there are people who just “jump on the bandwagon” without stopping to look at all of the elements of the issue.
He said that on the one hand it is being argued that as a dual citizen a person has no right in the National Assembly and, therefore, cannot vote but on the other hand a dual citizen who has not only entered the Assembly but has voted would have a vote upheld, although the vote was cast unconstitutionally. “That is a contradiction in law. Either the vote should not be counted or it should and it can’t be that Charrandass’s vote counts but mine doesn’t. How can that be? Or because he is a non-citizen but mine can’t be counted in future. So there are contradictions in there that needs sorting out,” he said.
The issue of MPs holding dual citizenship took centre stage once again following the vote by Charrandass Persaud, then an APNU+AFC parliamentarian, which resulted in the opposition PPP/C’s no-confidence motion against government being declared passed on December 21st on a vote of 33 to 32.
Following the vote, Persaud, who has Canadian citizenship, solicited the help of the Canadian High Commission as well as that of a friend, Peter Ramsaroop, to safely leave the country and left using a Canadian passport. He is yet to return to Guyana although he indicated that he has plans to do so.
