Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) Lenox Shuman will remain on his party’s list of candidates for the March 2 general and regional elections, Chair of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Justice (ret’d) Claudette Singh has confirmed.
“I have to inform you that the Commission after considerable deliberations decided that Mr Shuman’s name would remain on his party’s list,” Singh wrote to Shuman’s lawyer K A Juman-Yassin SC yesterday, referencing previous correspondence.
A controversy had erupted over whether Shuman was a dual citizen on Nomination Day when lists were submitted to GECOM on January 10. Shuman was one of three candidates identified to the commission as holding dual citizenship on Nomination Day. On the day in question, all candidates contesting the March 2nd general and regional elections were required to sign a Statutory Declaration identifying themselves as eligible to sit in the National Assembly. Article 155(a) of the Constitution specifically disqualifies persons who hold citizenship in foreign states from election to the National Assembly.