Foreign Secretary Carl Greenidge yesterday said that he will announce whether he will relinquish his British citizenship before the launch of the People’s National Congress’s (PNC) first campaign rally, which is set for Saturday.
“I will give you an answer on that in the next 48 hours,” said Greenidge, who was forced to resign as Minister of Foreign Affairs in April as a result of court rulings that confirmed that persons holding dual citizenship are ineligible to serve as Members of Parliament (MP). At the time, the government had announced that Greenidge was among those then government ministers who indicated that they would renounce their foreign citizenship.
Greenidge was asked about the status of the matter at a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press conference yesterday. He also said that he could not say if he will be on the APNU+AFC’s coalition’s list of candidates for the upcoming general elections and when he answers “the question of citizenship, I will answer the question.”
Other APNU+AFC members identified as dual citizens were WPA executive Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and AFC executive Dominic Gaskin. Apart from their Guyanese citizenship, like Greenidge, they indicated that they held United Kingdom citizenship. Former Minister of State Joseph Harmon held United States and Guyanese citizenship. Roopnaraine and Harmon relinquished their foreign naturalisation statuses but Gaskin, who was born in the United Kingdom, said he felt it was unfair to the country of his birth and Guyana for him to choose and thus kept both. All four were ministers but were forced to resign after the court rulings though, with the exception of Roopnaraine, they continue to hold high office.
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.”
