One day before they must prove to the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) that they were not citizens of a foreign state on Nomination Day, Lenox Shuman and Valerie Leung are challenging the authority via which the commission is questioning them.
“GECOM has acted illegally. GECOM has no authority to remove any …candidates from the list,” Leung declared in a three-minute video on her party’s Facebook page.
She argues in the video message that Article 163 (1)(a) of Guyana’s constitution grants exclusive jurisdiction to the High Court to determine the eligibility of any candidate for membership of the National Assembly.
The article mentioned states that “the High Court shall have exclusive jurisdiction to determine any question regarding the qualification of any person to be elected as a member of the National Assembly”.
Shuman presented a similar argument when contacted by Stabroek News last evening.
“The commissioners have no authority to address the legitimacy of any candidate,” he stressed adding that he has received no formal communication from GECOM that he has been removed as a candidate for the March 2 General and Regional Elections.
“What they have undertaken is unprecedented…they have no authority to asks for anyone to provide evidence of not being a citizen of a foreign state especially when they are not asking the same of the other 600 plus candidates,” he contended.
Asked specifically if the recent CCJ ruling on dual citizenship would not have directly influenced GECOM policy, Shuman maintained that there is no legal requirement that he or anyone else provide proof that they are only Guyanese citizens.
Despite two other candidates from two other parties having been similarly identified as likely violators of Article 155, Shuman is arguing that the commissioners’ recent decision “seems like a bit of a targeted attack against [him] and the Liberty and Justice Party because [they] pose a threat to the status quo.”
Article 155(a) of the Constitution specifically disqualifies from election to the Assembly a person who by virtue of his own act is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.
A person who declares themselves a candidate while citizen of a foreign state has therefore contravened the provisions of the Statutory Declaration Act and according to the Act have committed a misdemeanour offence for which they could be sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.
At last week’s Statutory meeting, the seven-member commission decided that anyone who held dual citizenship on January 10, 2020, Nomination Day, could not have legally signed that statutory declaration required for every candidate and therefore should not be included on the list of candidates.
The decision is seen as the implementation of a ruling from the Caribbean Court of Justice which followed a protracted legal battle resulting from the 2018 No Confidence vote and culminating with the resignation of six parliamentarians who were ineligible to sit in the Assembly as they were Citizens of another country.
Erroneously
In keeping with this decision members of the commission told reporters that Shuman along with Leung and Dr Vishnu Bandhu would be removed from the list which was erroneously gazetted with them as candidates.
Bandhu is the Presi-dential Candidate for the United Republican Party (URP) while Leung is a candidate for the Christian-based People’s Republican Party (PRP). Though Leung has been previously identified as the leader, Phyllis Jordan is listed as the Presidential Candidate.
Shuman had indicated his desire to renounce his citizenship and told report-ers on Nomination Day that the issue was settled. However the commission has not been provided with any documented verification of this.
Leung too maintains that she had renounced her Canadian citizenship before January 10 and signed the declaration in good faith. Bandhu’s renunciation is dated January 16 and therefore he has been deemed noncompliant.
In implementing this decision the Chair of GECOM Justice Claudette Singh, on Wednesday January 22, 2020 wrote to LJP requesting confirmation of Shuman’s citizen status to further guide any future decision on the possibility of removing Mr. Shuman as a Candidate from the Party’s list.
The party maintains that by today’s deadline it would’ve provided the Chair all necessary information.
On Tuesday, Stabroek News sought to ascertain by what method these three persons were identified from the hundreds of candidates who appear on the myriad of lists submitted by the 13 political parties approved to contest the March 2 elections.
Asked how the Commission became aware that these individuals hold dual citizenship, both government-nominated commission Vincent Alexander and Opposition-nominated Commissioner Robeson Benn indicated that the decision was made based on information which was reported in the media.
Bandhu they noted by his own admission was a citizen of the United States at the time he signed that statutory declaration.
In the case of Shuman he too by his own admission which was carried in the media identified himself as a dual citizen.
For Leung is was a source close to the commission who made them aware that she was seeking to renounce her Canadian citizenship.
Prior to Nomination Day, this newspaper had sought to establish whether the commission had any established mechanism to weed out dual citizens in light of the fact that Candidates had routinely in the past incorrectly declared themselves eligible to serve.
However according to a source at the commission, GECOM is simply incapable of verifying the information.
“We have spoken about it but for now we remain heavily reliant on public scrutiny. It is impossible for us within three days to verify whether one or two among hundreds of Candidates are dual citizens,” a source at the commission had explained.
