Citizenship and the vote
by Eusi Kwayana
This article is a layman's exploring of the link between voting and citizenship with special reference to Guyana. It may be found by experts that many of the conclusions are foolish but that will be all the more reason to have the laws written in simple language. The article is, I believe, sparked by the lively debate going on about the size or the voters' list. It does not directly respond to the arguments, but it raises other issues not discussed. Citizenship and the right to vote are closely connected. If there is no prescribed legal disability, that is, a law denying the vote to citizens of some particular description, all of them have the right to vote. The most well known of these bars is the age bar. In Guyana the age is now 18. A citizen below that age on the qualifying date has no right to vote. It is always the case that persons who are not natural-born in a country can apply for citizenship of that country. The decision lies with the host state. Our discussion does not deal with those who join, or acquire a nationality. Under the 1966, independence-day constitution (May 26), every person who had been "born in the colony of British Guiana" became a citizen of Guyana automatically. All such persons could of course vote on reaching the voting age. Another group becoming citizens at once was the set of persons born outside of British Guiana. If such a person had a father (not a mother) who was born in British Guiana, the child born outside would become a citizen of Guyana. What if the father died before independence day? It would make no difference to the child, once that father was born in British Guiana. Why? If the father had not died the father would have been a citizen of Guyana because of being born in British Guiana. Other citizens by birth were noted. Under article 23, a person born in Guiana after May 25, 1966 had automatic citizenship. This did not apply to children of foreign diplomats serving in Guyana. Most noteworthy is the case of a child born outside of Guyana after May 25, 1966. If such a child's father (not mother) was a citizen of Guyana, not also born abroad, the child is a citizen of Guyana. Such a child may never have seen Guyana. Under that constitution also, a foreign woman marrying a male citizen had the right to apply for citizenship. The converse was not the case, however; a woman citizen marrying a non Guyanese did not entitle him to apply for citizenship. Turning to what citizenship meant for voting rights, the 1966 constitution entitled every citizen, of the right age, to be able to vote. The right to be registered to vote in Guyana's election has also belonged to certain persons of the right age who had lived in Guyana for one year or more. Those persons had to be a citizen of a Commonwealth country, or be born in a colony of the British Empire. In 1966 not all citizens of Guyana had the right to be registered as voters. To be registered to vote, the citizen had to be "domiciled" in Guyana or resident in Guyana for at least one year before the qualifying date. The 1973 version of the constitution bore the changes caused by the change to a republic in 1970. However, the voting qualification for Guyanese citizens remained exactly the same. The citizen had to be domiciled, that is, regard Guyana as his or her permanent home, or be resident for at least one year before the qualifying date. Since the constitution is the supreme law, its articles overrule any other laws made for representation or voter registration. It is well to bear the principle of the supreme law in mind as we go onto future changes. The big change seems to come with the 1980 Constitution, which has just been amended in some parts. In the 1980 Constitution we find that the citizens are much the same groups as before, with mothers now winning the rights previously held by fathers only. Since 1980 any child born outside of Guyana of at least one Guyanese parent, mother or father, is a citizen of Guyana. There is an important change, however, in the entitlement to vote when compared with previous constitutions. Can this explain some at least of the uneasiness about the relation between registered voters' presence or absence, about what Dr Ally referred to as "overseas voting in Guyana" and some of the other mismatches that have come to light, or have been alleged? And are some debaters talking with tongue in the cheek, but still in line with the constitution? We can note at once the argument about outward migration, which really does not remove the vote as such! So what does the 1980 Constitution say about the "entitlement to vote?" In article 59 it says that to be entitled to be registered as a voter, one must be 18 or more and "either a Guyanese citizen or a Commonwealth citizen domiciled and resident in Guyana." For non lawyers there can be ground for argument about the meaning and intention of this provision. However, light comes from the fact that article 59 is "subject to the provisions of article 159." Article 159 hardly leaves room for doubt. The language is what they call mandatory, and it says under the marginal note "qualifications and disqualifications for electors", that a person shall not be qualified to vote unless he is "of the age of eighteen years or upwards and either - (a) is a citizen of Guyana (b) is a Commonwealth citizen who is not a citizen of Guyana and who is domiciled and resident in Guyana and has been so resident for a period of one year immediately prior to the qualifying date." There is a lot to chew on in these provisions. To my mind, with due respect to the point raised in the debate or arguments, some of them cannot be discussed without reference to the constitutional rights of non-resident citizens.
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