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Greenidge to announce fate of his political career in 48 hrs
Foreign Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge, said that he will give an answer about his citizenship in the next 48 hours.
His comment was made yesterday at a press conference held in the main conference office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs located on South Road and Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.
Carl Greenidge
Greenidge was asked whether he will relinquish his citizenship given the ruling on dual citizenship and parliamentary membership.
He responded, “I will give you an answer on that within the next 48 hours.”
He was further questioned whether he would be a potential candidate in the upcoming March 2, 2020 Regional and General Elections?
Greenidge responded, “When I’ve answered the question as to citizenship…Then I would be prepared to consider answering that question.”
Greenidge, along with three other Members of Parliament (MP) who are holders of dual citizenship, was forced to resign from their respective posts due to a ruling from the Court of Appeal back in March 22, 2019.
The three other MPs are Director General of the Ministry of Presidency Joseph Harmon, and Ministers Dominic Gaskin, and Rupert Roopnaraine.
The issue of MPs and their holding of dual citizenship took centre stage following a vote made by former MP Charrandass Persaud of A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU + AFC) Coalition Government, which resulted in the Opposition’s no confidence motion being passed on December 21, 2018.
The no confidence motion against the Coalition Government triggered the filing of a court action by a private citizen, Compton Reid.
His argument was that if you are a dual citizenship there are implications by law that deems ones parliamentary status as void. In that case, since Charrandass Persaud possesses a dual citizenship, he is clearly in breach of the constitution and thus his vote did not count.
However, the High Court and Court of Appeal both ruled that Charrandass’s vote was valid which made the no confidence motion valid as well.
The courts also ruled that according to the Constitution that if parliamentarians are holding allegiance to foreign states then they are not eligible to be elected to serve in the National Assembly.
Article 155 (1) (a) of the Constitution states, “No person shall be qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly who is, by virtue of his or own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.”
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