The three PPP/C parliamentarians who hold dual citizenship will by next week hand in their resignation letters to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday.
He said that the party’s Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, who is renouncing her Canadian citizenship, has asked the authorities in that country to expedite the process. Jagdeo made the disclosures at his weekly press conference yesterday during which he accused the government of trying to make Guyanese “fools” by giving conflicting information regarding its four dual citizen parliamentarians.
Previously, Jagdeo appeared in no rush to have the PPP/C dual citizen Members of Parliament (MPs) resign and he had repeatedly said that the opposition will not be present when the National Assembly reconvenes on April 11.
Asked by Stabroek News about their resignations, the former president indicated that after his press conference last week, the trio wrote to the representative of the party’s list indicating that they will resign. “I suspect by next week they would all submit letters to the Speaker,” he said.
Odinga Lumumba and Adrian Anamayah are the other two dual citizen MPs on the opposition side of the House. They are both holders of US passports.
Jagdeo said that while Teixeira and Lumumba have given clear indications that they will renounce their foreign citizenship, Anamayah has opted to keep his American citizenship due to family commitments.
“He has explained to me that there are family obligations and other issues, so he will not renounce because of those commitment he has with his family and others but Odinga Lumumba and Gail Teixeira, they will renounce,” he said.
According to Jagdeo, Teixeira has shown him the documents she has submitted to the Canadian authorities in keeping with the renouncing process and stressed that she has filed all the requisite papers and has already received a letter of acknowledgement from the Canadian authorities. She is now waiting their “decision on the matter for an expedited renunciation,” he said, adding that Lumumba will commence a similar process same shortly.
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.”
Both the High Court and the Guyana Court of Appeal have, in their decisions in the cases filed challenging the vote of former government parliamentarian Charrandass Persaud, reaffirmed this provision. The validity of Persaud’s vote was challenged based on the fact that he holds Canadian citizenship. Following the vote, which resulted in the successful passage of the opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against the APNU+AFC government, Persaud left the country for Canada. He has not returned since.
Meanwhile, Jagdeo said that the government is not being sincere about its position regarding its four dual citizen parliamentarians.
He reminded that a few days ago, Minister of State Joseph Harmon, who is himself a dual citizen, had indicated that the four dual citizen government MPs will be attending parliamentary sittings. Harmon has made this disclosure on Friday during a post-Cabinet press briefing while disclosing that the National Assembly will reconvene on April 11.
Jagdeo reminded that government Chief Whip Amna Ally has also said that the dual citizens will be in the House.
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Referencing the opposition’s previous utterances that the government was handling the dual citizenship issue in a duplicitous manner, he said that because of public outcry about their “dishonest actions” with respect to the court rulings, the government is now caught in a dilemma.
“They are trying to get out of it and so there is confusion. The lack of sincerity and honesty by this government is reflected in the three press releases they issued in two days,” he said while reminding that the president, having accepted the resignations, is now saying that they will not take immediate effect.
“It is shamefully incompetent that they can’t get their story right,” he said noting that he is unaware that the four have to go through several processes before the resignation takes effect. Jagdeo said that as far as he was concerned, letters have to be penned to the Speaker resigning from parliament and to the president, resigning as ministers. “This is a simple matter,” he said.
“Tuesday, we heard four resigned [and] that their portfolios will now be held by others ministers and today we are hearing that they will remain as ministers until all the processes are complete,” he said, before questioning the length of time it will take to write two letters each.
“In the time they took to write the press releases, they could have written the letters. They think Guyanese are fools and could be taken for a ride,” he said.
Jagdeo also expressed concern that the resignation of the four will cost the taxpayers more money given that government has announced that they will be rehired in other capacities. “I suspect that their vehicles and perks will be preserved and that we will have to find salaries and vehicles for another set,” he opined.
During the press conference, the opposition leader also insisted that house-to-house registration is not needed and said any attempts to exclude Guyanese living abroad is wrong.
Harmon previously said that overseas-based Guyanese must be at their Guyana address during the house-to-house registration period if they want their names on the voters’ list.
“…if you reside overseas and you are not there at the time when the enumerators go to your house, then you cannot be considered to be on the list of electors. It’s not a matter of disenfranchising anyone,” he had said during Friday’s post-Cabinet press briefing.
Jagdeo insisted that there is nothing in the Constitution which says that a person has to be domiciled here to be registered. He posited that the only other relevant criteria besides being a Guyanese, is that a person must be at least 18 years old.
He claimed that the house-to-house registration process is to delay the holding of elections and to also get the names of foreigners on the list.
