Dual citizenship MPs set to  continue violation of Article 155

With questions again being asked about parliamentarians who hold foreign allegiance, representative of the APNU+AFC list, Professor Harold Lutchman says that he has no authority to take any action as it relates to alliance parliamentarians with dual citizenship.

“That is for the authorities including the president to take action,” Lutchman told Stabroek News when contacted yesterday. “I don’t have that sort of constitutional authority,” he said while adding that he does not know which of the incoming Members of Parliament on the alliance’s list have dual citizenship. The PPP/C has indicated that it has not yet decided on whether its representatives will be sworn in as Members of Parliament.

Article 155 of the Constitution disqualifies persons with dual citizenship from being a Member of Parliament. According to 1) (a) of Article 155 “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.”

AFC leader and now Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan had previously acknowledged that those who hold seats in Parliament and have foreign passports are in breach of the Constitution, but said that he believed that the law should be amended to accommodate them. Former MPs Dr Leslie Ramsammy, Gail Teixeira and Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, are all believed to hold dual citizenship.

Then Leader of the Opposition and APNU and now President David Granger had told Stabroek News in 2012 that the coalition had not discussed the issue but this would be happening. He had said that from the time that law was written, the situation has changed. “The Diaspora is so large and important [to Guyana]. We should not continue to have such a dichotomy situation,” he had. “I am not saying here that the law must be changed. I am saying that we should hear what the people need and establish the laws they want,” Granger added.

A number of persons over the years have pointed out that the Constitution is being breached in this regard and said that the politicians need to ensure that they obey the law.

Violation

C R Bernard on Sunday wrote to Lutchman and Representative of the PPP/C list Donald Ramotar and requested that persons who have allegiance to another state to not be allowed to become parliamentarians as this would be a violation of the Constitution.

“The issue is a matter of national importance, but all calls for addressing it have so far been largely ignored by political parties. The change in government and a new parliament present a significant opportunity to correct the error. If the political parties do not take appropriate actions, it is needful for the Guyanese people to take any further action against our political leaders by protesting the swearing in of anyone known to be voluntarily hold foreign allegiance. If public protest fails then we must take to the courts as was done in Jamaica,” he observed.

In his letter to Lutchman and Ramotar, Bernard said that their taking action to avoid the violation of the Constitution will also avoid legal action being taken against members of their parties as was done in Jamaica.

When contacted, Lutchman said that he did not make any specific enquiry as to whether any of the incoming APNU+AFC parliamentarians has dual citizenship. He also noted that there is a precedent with several MPs in the last parliament having dual citizenship. “It is for the authorities to take action on the matter,” he said while adding that the leaders of the party are the best persons to address the questions to. “All that I did was to sign off on the list agreed to by both parties,” the law professor said.

He added that persons with objections should raise it or take it to the court and he does not have specific information on everyone on the list. Lutchman was reluctant to offer an interpretation of Article 155 and noted that there is a precedent for MPs with dual nationality. “I am merely carrying out the will of the parties,” he said while adding that on that issue “I didn’t see that as part of my function.” He said that it was a good question to pursue.

In his letter to the two list representatives, Bernard said that it is his hope that his appeal “will avert the repetition of an egregious violation of the constitution of the Republic of Guyana” in the swearing in of the 11th parliament.

Multiple persons

“It is now common knowledge that there were multiple persons sitting in the 10th Parliament who were disqualified from holding such office on the grounds of Article 155 of the constitution. This article specifically disqualifies from election to the National Assembly, anyone who ‘is by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state’”, he asserted.

He said that Article 155 is set on firm principles which take into account that a person should not sit to make laws for one state which they are not bound to abide by because they can escape to the protection of another state. He also pointed out that there arises a conflict of interest that threatens the sovereignty of the nation when a person with allegiance to another nation sits to make decision relating to both countries.

“No party sitting in the 10th Parliament has denied knowledge of the violation of Article 155 of the constitution. But no party or individual member moved to have the matter corrected. Consequently, it could be said that all members of the 10th Parliament colluded to egregiously violate the highest law of the land,” Bernard declared.

The matter has been raised a number of times before but the parties did not take any action.

In April, Rafiq T Khan in a letter to Stabroek News observed that the list of candidates submitted to the Chief Election Officer by the contestants, supported by statutory declarations by each member of the lists stating that they are aware of the provisions of Article 155 of the constitution, are replete with persons who hold citizenship in other countries. He had said that he would not vote as a result.

“I refuse to be an accomplice to or complicit in the perpetuation of what I regard as a constitutional illegality in this country. Some of your letter writers have already alluded to it, but it does not seem to have gained the traction that it deserves. The reason, I believe, is that all political players, to use the words of Martin Carter, “are consumed” by it,” he declared.

“With respect to the issue of dual citizenship the framers of the Guyana Constitution by making Article 53 subject to Article 155, put the issue beyond all doubt. Persons holding dual citizenship are disqualified from being members of the National Assembly,” he asserted. He noted that when similar cases were taken to court in Jamaica and Trinidad, those involved relinquished their foreign citizenship.

Khan also pointed to the issue of the statutory declarations made by the members of the lists in which they each declare that they are aware of Article 155 of the constitution. “Under Section 4 of the Statutory Declarations Act Cap 5:09, it is an offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of one year to make in a statutory declaration a statement false in fact,” he pointed out.

“For too long many of our laws have been honoured in the breach. It is particularly egregious when persons who, smugly holding aloft in their faith, are going to swear to uphold the Constitution and the laws of Guyana, are themselves in blatant breach of the constitution. That is hypocrisy,” he said.

Prior to the 2011 elections, attorney Christopher Ram had also raised the issue and in a letter to then Chief Election Officer Gocool Boodoo, he had reminded the official that it is his duty to ensure that the elections are held in accordance with all laws. “It is my view that there is a serious obligation on your part to verify that the eligibility requirements are satisfied. You should be aware too that while there might have been breaches in the past, this cannot justify a continuation of an unconstitutional violation in such an important matter,” he had said.

Ram had observed that this is more than an academic matter. “The constitutional provisions are intended to ensure that our legislators are loyal to Guyana and Guyana alone. A similar situation arose in Jamaica recently where politician Mr Daryl Vaz gave up his naturalized US citizenship in order to continue in Jamaican politics. That those who seek to make laws for the citizens of any country must be willing to submit themselves to those very laws at all times is almost superfluous to state,” he asserted.

“The permissiveness that characterised previous parliaments has led us into the present state of non-governance and lawlessness. We must not allow the same mistakes again. The time to start holding our next batch of parliamentary representatives to account begins now,” he said at the time.