Dual citizenship revisited Editorial Stabroek News December 14, 2000 After peaceful and efficient general elections on Monday in the sister Caricom nation of Trinidad and Tobago in which the winner was known on the night of the elections, Mr Basdeo Panday's United National Congress (UNC) emerged with l9 parliamentary seats, Mr Patrick Manning's People's National Movement (PNM) with l6 and the National Alliance for Reconstruction with one, in Tobago. However, Mr Manning has announced that his party will be challenging the candidacies of two successful UNC candidates on the grounds that they filed false nomination papers in which they declared that they did not owe allegiance to any foreign state. In fact, in addition to being citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, they had acquired citizenship of the United States of America and Canada. In Australia the high court decided in l992 that citizens of Switzerland and Greece who had become Australians and had not renounced their original citizenship were not qualified to be elected to Parliament because there was a section in the Australian constitution that disqualifies any person who is under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power. If the court in Trinidad so holds, fresh elections could be ordered in those two constituencies (that would be the usual remedy if an election petition were filed), though one report has suggested that the court could award the seats to the runners up, in both cases PNM candidates, which would make Mr Manning's party with l8 seats the winner over the UNC with l7. This remains to be clarified. Certainly in Guyana when the United Force under Peter d'Aguiar had sought to stop an election in l968 because of irregular voting registration procedures it had been successfully argued by the then attorney general that the only remedy available in an election was an election petition. In Guyana there is an Article in our constitution similar to that in Australia. If candidacies were challenged here, however, the effect would be different as if parliamentarians were disqualified the party leaders could presumably pick other names from the list. However, the situation is anomalous and not desirable in principle. There is also an Article in the constitution under which other citizens can be deprived of their citizenship if they acquire allegiance to a foreign power. Regrettably, the whole issue of dual citizenship was not debated as part of the process of constitutional reform. There are strong arguments on both sides of the issue. A large majority of countries do not recognise dual citizenship. However, some do including Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, France, Grenada, Hungary, New Zealand, Nigeria, Portugal and the United Kingdom. President Vaclav Havel signed a law in l999 that will enable former Czechoslovak citizens who had become citizens of other countries but lost their original citizenship to become citizens of the Czech Republic. The law does not require exclusivity, applicants can retain their current citizenship. The President indicated that he considered Czech citizens living abroad to be an integral part of the society who had helped and continued to help in a significant way. Czechs abroad had kept alive the continuity of the spiritual life of the country. The traditional argument against dual citizenship is that it creates an undesirable ambivalence and a less than wholehearted commitment to either country. As it has been said, when it comes to core loyalties which country does a dual citizen belong to? It can also create complications with requirements for military service, for example, as a dual citizen would be subject to all the laws in both countries. Originally the common law doctrine was that no man could abandon his country and some countries still make it very difficult to give up citizenship. The court in Australia had suggested that the two persons should take reasonable steps to renounce foreign nationality and the two candidates in Trinidad have indeed since nomination day sought to renounce their overseas citizenship. It is perhaps too late now to discuss this issue as part of the constitutional reform process before elections. However, it had been recommended that reform should be an ongoing process and the whole issue of citizenship should be dealt with by the committee when it eventually reconvenes after the elections. Indeed there should be a frank national debate on the topic. It is very undesirable on principle that the law should differ greatly from reality. There are a large number of Guyanese citizens here and abroad who also hold another passport. Shouldn't this be regularised? After all, Guyana has suffered a virtual diaspora over the last fifty years because of political instability. Don't President Havel's arguments apply? And in these days of the global village and blocs like the European Community where there is free movement of people isn't the idea of single citizenship becoming a little anachronistic? Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today