Dear Editor,
In his Frankly Speaking column on Friday, 05 April Mr Fenty says:
“I’ve always wondered about our Constitutional provision that allows foreigners from any Commonwealth nation – who lived here for just one year (continuously) before those elections, to vote here (See Article 159 (b)”. He then continues “I’m betting that if I lived in some other “Commonwealth” countries, I won’t have that privilege – much less “right”.
I regret to tell Mr Fenty that he would lose the bet. That is actually a Commonwealth agreement, not something inserted by the framers of our Constitution. Very recently, the previous Prime Minister of Barbados, who thought like Mr Fenty, directed that a Jamaican, who is a Lecturer at the UWI’s Cave Hill campus, should not be included in the list of voters in Barbados. That case went to the CCJ. The ruling was that, yes, that Lecturer had the right to be included. As I said, it is not something peculiar to either Guyana or Barbados. It is Commonwealth-wide.
Yours faithfully,
Pat Robinson Commissiong
