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…APNU+AFC demands immediate resignation for breach of Constitution
A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) is demanding that Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond resigns with immediate effect, now that it has been confirmed that she was still a U.S. citizen at the time she took the oath to serve as a Member of the Guyana Parliament.
“There is only one course of action now for Waldron and that is for her to vacate the ministry and vacate the National Assembly. Nothing less will be acceptable,” the APNU+AFC said in a statement.
According to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs’ Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States, Walrond took the Oath of Renunciation on September 4, 2020 while the Certificate of Loss of Nationality was approved on the 8th September. She was sworn in as a MP on September 1, 2020.
The Coalition said that Walrond’s action is in violation of Article 155 of the Constitution which prohibits persons who hold dual citizenship from serving as Parliamentarians.
“It has now become clear and indisputable that at the time she was sworn in as Minister on August 5th and as a Member of Parliament on September 1st she was a dual citizen and therefore ineligible to be a member of the National Assembly and therefore ineligible to be a minister,” APNU+AFC while accusing President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo of aiding and abetting her.
“The APNU+AFC Coalition calls… for fraud charges to be instituted against her and the Speaker of the National Assembly,” the statement said.
Walrond had admitted that she was a citizen of the U.S. when she was sworn in as a Minister of Government on August 5, but was tight lipped on the date she was issued the Certificate of Renunciation.
On Thursday, Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, submitted a copy of Walrond’s Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States, to APNU+AFC Member of Parliament, Roysdale Forde, SC via a correspondence.
In the letter, the Clerk, who sought legal advice before making public the document, pointed out two primary facts. “Mrs. Oneidge Walrond voluntarily took an Oath of Renunciation regarding her nationality of the United States of America during the month of September, 2020…Mrs. Oneidge Walrond lost her nationality to the United States of American immediately upon taking the said Oath of Renunciation,” Isaacs informed the APNU+AFC Parliamentarian.
Earlier this week, Forde had written the Clerk to indicate that the Coalition is of the view that Walrond is unlawfully a member of the National Assembly and it ought to so be declared and requested a copy of Waldron’s Certificate of Renunciation.
President Irfaan Ali, when questioned on whether his Minister had breached the Constitution, told the press that Walrond was an honourable woman. The APNU+AFC Coalition has initiated legal proceedings against Walrond.
