Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Oneidge Walrond yesterday said that she renounc-ed her US citizenship before she was sworn in as a Member of Parliament (MP) on September 1st, although she did not state whether the certificate of renunciation was received before that date.
Efforts made by the Sunday Stabroek yesterday to contact Walrond to clarify whether the date stated on her renunciation certificate was after her appointment proved futile since calls to her phone went unanswered.
The opposition APNU+AFC maintains that Walrond was a dual citizen at the time she was sworn in and as a result it is calling for her immediate resignation as a MP. It also said it is considering mounting a legal challenge against her membership.
In a press statement issued yesterday, Walrond detailed the steps she took from the time she was approached by President Irfaan Ali to take up the ministerial position up to the point that she was sworn in.
She explained that on August 5th, she was invited by Ali to join his Cabinet. Walrond said she accepted the offer, which she considered as an opportunity to serve the country.
As an attorney, Walrond noted that she consulted with other lawyers on the whether the constitutional provision against elected MPs extended to technocrats as she was not selected from the PPP/C’s candidates list. “…I sought the counsel of other attorneys on whether the sections of the constitution prohibiting elected members from being dual citizens applied to me as a technocrat minister,” she said.
She added that although she was advised that the provision did not extend to technocrats, “out of an abundance of caution”, she took a decision to renounce her US citizenship. “…I decided to renounce my citizenship to put the matter beyond all doubt and avoid any distraction to the good work of the government,” she said.
On August 18th, Walrond further explained, she wrote to the US Consular office renouncing her US citizenship with immediate effect.
She said she was then informed of the administrative procedure she is required to comply with in order to obtain a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the US.
“I complied with that process by August 27. I have since received the Certificate of Loss of Nationality,” Walrond stated. She did not provide the date of this certificate.
On Friday, questions were raised about whether Walrond had renounced her American citizenship before becoming a MP.
Clerk of the National Assembly Sherlock Isaacs had said that he had not been supplied with any such document.
The constitutional injunction against MPs holding dual citizenship was upheld in the case brought last year against Charrandass Persaud and which ended up at the Caribbean Court of Justice. Since then, political parties and Parliament Office have reiterated that dual citizens cannot sit in Parliament.
“I do not have record of her renunciation. I have of all the other parliamentarians,” Isaacs said on Friday.
Questioned about the issue yesterday morning, Ali also told reporters that Walrond “gave up” her American citizenship before she was sworn in as a MP.
“She is not that status, that is what I know,” Ali said, while responding to a question from the media on the sidelines of an event held at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
When asked if Walrond took this action before she was sworn in, Ali responded, “I know she gave up the status. That’s what I know. From the time we announced the cabinet, I am sure that all the members were in line, they knew what they had to do and they would have already done what they had to do”.
Legal action
Unsatisfied with Walrond’s explanation, APNU+AFC Member is considering the institution of legal proceeding to effect her removal from the National Assembly.
“It has already been decided by the court that you cannot have dual citizenship and sit in the National Assembly…Article 103(3) of the Constitution specifies that technocrat ministers must be qualified to sit in the National Assembly [therefore] the same criteria applies to those persons not elected to the Assembly as to those elected,” Member of Parliament Roysdale Forde explained.
He labelled the Minister’s actions as particularly egregious since this matter was publicly ventilated over several months and the Clerk of the National Assembly took the time to reach out to each member asking that they “indicate or provide a statement that they were not dual citizens at the time when we became a member of the National Assembly.”
Forde said Walrond could bring the issue to an end by releasing her certificate of renunciation.
On its website, the US Embassy in Georgetown explains that Section 349(a)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (8 U.S.C. 1481(a)(5), which governs the right of a United States citizen to renounce his or her US citizenship, provides for the loss of nationality by voluntarily “(5) making a formal renunciation of nationality before a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States in a foreign state , in such form as may be prescribed by the Secretary of State.” It emphasizes that a person wishing to renounce his or her US citizenship must voluntarily and with intent to relinquish US citizenship appear in person before a U.S. consular or diplomatic officer and sign an oath of renunciation.
