Prior to the submission of names for its 12 members of parliament in 2015, the Alliance for Change said it asked its members if they had dual citizenship that would prevent them from taking up seats in contravention of Article 155(1) and Charrandass Persaud did not declare his.
“My predecessor and the other persons that were asked have confirmed that at the point in time the party did ask about citizenship and part of that is a constitutional requirement and they all declared that they weren’t dual citizens,” AFC General Secretary Marlon Williams yesterday told a press conference.
Chairman of the party Khemraj Ramjattan explained yesterday that Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin was the only of the twelve to indicate that he had been born in the United Kingdom but it was explained to him that he would not fall into the category as the constitution stipulates the violation.
Article 155 (1) (a) of the Constitution says, “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”.
“The article states by own virtue of his or her own act and that means by own personal will. Being born there or having a parent means you would have gotten it as a child and not of your own will and it was why Janet Jagan is excluded also. When you are a baby born or a child you cannot say [no]. That is why Janet was [excluded], she was born [in the U.S], she could not say no. And when she came here, that did not mean she was excluded from being [President]. So it would not apply to Janet or [Gaskin]…,” he said.
The issue of MPs holding dual citizenship took centre stage once again following the vote by Persaud, then an APNU+AFC parliamentarian, which resulted in the opposition PPP/C’s no confidence motion against government being declared passed on December 21st on a vote of 33 to 32.
Following the vote, Persaud, who has Canadian citizenship, solicited the help of the Canadian High Commission and his friend Peter Ramsaroop to safely leave the country and left using a Canadian passport.
It triggered the recent court action filed by a private citizen, Compton Reid, which challenges the validity of Persaud’s election as a Member of Parliament (MP) due to his dual citizenship.
Reid, like government and Ramjattan, believes that if the court rules that the constitution was violated, Persaud’s vote would become null
“The scenario they are arguing is a case where Charrandass’ vote can be vitiated,” Ramjattan said.
“My understanding, from the argument from the (Compton) Reid analysis, is that if you were a dual citizen, there are certain implications that you would have voided or vitiated your parliamentary status from the very inception and as such that vote in the no-confidence ought not to count. So it will go back to a 32-32 scenario if it does not count. If the court now rules, by virtue of all the evidence this case has brought from Reid, that he (Charrandass) has dual citizenship, it will apply to him. They will probably have to bring another case against the rest to neutralise theirs but that’s what I understand from the Reid case that Charrandass is what they are getting at,” he added.
Lied
The Minister of Public Security said that Persaud lied to the party when he was being grilled about his eligibility criteria of acceptance to parliament.
“My predecessor would have approached all persons selected to become MPs and that question was asked,” Williams stressed as Minister of Public Communications, Cathy Hughes added, “The AFC has always been adamant to adhering to the constitution and we did ask everyone and if you notice only one person had said they were in good stead and we later discovered wasn’t.”
Hughes further said, “There is no way that we could say that a member of parliament did not know the requirement of the constitution, especially a lawyer. That was one of the first things you were given before you entered the parliament. Therefore, if somebody is going to deliberately deceive, there is no protection from that. If someone sets out to deceive I don’t see what you could do except to prove – in today’s world where you want to protect it would be illegal to ask, we come to the table you know what is required , the integrity of the position and we would take at face value the answer the MP would give. Christ has a Judas and the frailty of human beings is a real thing…”
Ramjattan noted that the party was not aware and had no indication of Persaud’s dual citizenship status as when he travelled to conduct government business, he would always use his Guyana passport.
It is now known that nine MPs, five on the government side and four on the opposition are dual citizens.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon and Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge have admitted their cases with the latter minister saying that he has already engaged his attorneys on this matter and is awaiting the outcome of the recent court action filed by Reid. Greenidge, when contacted, told this newspaper that he has UK citizenship, which he acquired after leaving Guyana as a child.
Opposition MP Anil Nandlall on Sunday called on the APNU+AFC coalition to say what it intends to do about the current situation as it is duplicitous and hypocritical to only zoom in on Persaud’s status.
Ramjattan was asked about the duplicity and said that while the party’s actions could be viewed that way, the whole picture has to be taken into account.
“This politics is not easy. You can say that but I want to be frank with you. When you get somebody that is treacherous as that his (Persaud’s) duplicity is far more egregious than what we have here,” he said.
For her part, Hughes said that the AFC could not give a view on APNU members’ citizenship but the public knows their views on the matter and as it was up to the respective parties to deal with their candidates.
She and Ramjattan believe that the court action could trigger a nationwide discussion on the issue which in turn could see more stringent oversight by parliament and parties.
“That is how democracies evolve; you have compelling circumstances …,” Ramjattan said.
“Parliament might have to consider when more specific checks be made of the MPs, down to the qualifications,” Hughes noted.
