Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves on Wednesday said that he intends to fight legally and politically the proposed amendments to the Constitution expected to be debated in Parliament on Tuesday.
“Today is a day where we have to commence our resistance to this New Democratic Party (NDP) dictatorship,” Gonsalves said on Star Radio, which is owned by the Unity Labour Party, which he heads.
“This dictatorship is seeking to bring a constitutional amendment to throw the election case against Friday and Bramble, and they’re seeking to do so by amending the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act,” he continued.
The ULP candidates in the Northern Grenadines and East Kingstown, respectively, have filed an election petition challenging the qualifications of Prime Minister Godwin Friday and Foreign Minister Dwight “Fitz” Bramble to contest the polls, given their Canadian citizenship.
The ULP, which was voted out of office after 25 years, losing the Nov. 27 vote 14-1 in the 15-member Parliament, is arguing that Friday and Bramble acquired Canadian citizenship through their own voluntary act and, accordingly, are under an acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to this foreign power or state of Canada, contrary to the Vincentian constitution.
Friday has been an MP since 2001, and Bramble was first elected in 2020 and they represent two constituencies that the ULP have never won.
The NDP has maintained that the Constitution of St. Vincent and the Grenadines says that a person must be a Commonwealth citizen in order to be elected to Parliament, and, therefore, Friday and Bramble are duly elected as MPs.
NDP senator Jemalie John said on Hot 97 FM on Wednesday that the amendment will seek to clarify an ambiguity and will not affect the election petitions.
“Well, the Constitution itself is not being amended. What we are, in fact, doing is removing the ambiguity because there is some ambiguity. If there were no ambiguity, we would not have this case before the court right now,” he said.
“And so, one of the questions that causes ambiguity is, what exactly is a foreign power or state?” John said.
“And there are some who say, ‘Well, our Constitution says countries within the Commonwealth are not foreign powers or states.”
Gonsavles said the government is seeking to amend Section 26(5) of the Constitution, which specifically defines the scope of certain disqualifications for candidacy for general elections.
The opposition leader said that the amendments seek to define foreign power or state and, secondly, to state that there is nothing in Section 26 that deals with issues of allegiance, acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.
Gonsalves added that as he interpreted the proposed bill to mean that once it is passed, it will be retroactive to 1979, when the Constitution came into effect.
One case management have already occurred in March, and the judge has set the 28, 29 and 30 of July for arguments in the case.
The leader of the opposition noted that on the morning of the case management hearing, Friday described the election petitions as frivolous and a waste of time.
“But what happened? He has brought two bills, one to amend the Constitution to sort out the legal problem that he has, and an amendment, similarly, to the Representation of the People’,” he said.
Friday and Bramble, through their lawyers at the case management hearing, agreed that they are Canadian citizens and they have Canadian passports, Gonsalves explained.
He contended that the only questions that remain are legal ones, central among which is “Is Canada a foreign power or state?”
The second issue was that Friday and Bramble do have an allegiance, obedience and adherence to this foreign power state called Canada.
“They were arguing differently that because Canada is a commonwealth country, it’s not so. But they must have received legal advice that they must buy an insurance policy by changing the Constitution, so they brought these two bills,” Gonsalves said.
The opposition leader noted that one of the proposals in the 2009 constitutional reform was to allow people with dual citizenship to run for office.
“The people voted that down, the Constitution was voted down and the NDP itself, including Friday, championed against that provision,” Gonsalves said.
The core messages that we have to go forth with is that the government was doing this to favour themselves, Gonsalves contended.
“This is a political battle of massive proportions, and through this medium, I’m calling on the governor-general to intervene, to stop this madness instituted by the NDP. He must indicate to the public that he would not give assent to a bill, to these bills, if they are passed,” Gonsalves said.
