Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond on Friday said that she has done nothing wrong and will continue to occupy her seat in the National Assembly.
“The attempt to besmirch my character has not gone unnoticed by the public. I am convinced that I have full legal rights to sit in the National Assembly and that I have done nothing illegal and I continue to sit in the National Assembly as a legal representative,” she said.
Walrond was at the time responding to questions posed by the media on the side-lines of an event at the Guyana Marriott Hotel.
On Wednesday, Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones asked the High Court to order the Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir to bar Walrond from sitting in House as a Member of Parliament over what he describes as a flagrant violation of the Constitution.
Jones’ Fixed Date Application (FDA), filed on Wednesday, comes close to two weeks after Walrond’s U.S. records revealed that she was still a citizen of the United States of America (USA) when she was sworn in as the Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce on August 5, and Member of Parliament on September 1, in breach of the Article 155 of the Constitution.
Article 155 of the Constitution prohibits persons who hold dual citizenship from serving as parliamentarians.
“My position has been the act of renunciation is a unilateral act that when a citizen has done the legal standard, when a citizen has done all that is within her power to renounce, which is what I did on (August) 18, paying a substantial amount of fees which is over $500,000 on August 27, I did all of this before I swore in… The fact that I received my certificate two days after swearing in, in my opinion, cannot support the argument that I was there illegally,” Minister Walrond explained.
Walrond, who is also an attorney, reiterated that the law states that “the citizen ought to have done all that was in her power to renounce, which is what I did by indicating to the Counsellor on August 18. I was informed that there was an administrative procedure that I had to follow in order to receive my certificate, which is what I received on the September 4.”
Meanwhile, through his Attorney, Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, Jones is asking the court to declare that Walrond, the third named respondent, is an unlawful Member of the National Assembly of the 12th Parliament of Guyana. Further, he wants the Court to declare that Walrond was not lawfully appointed a Minister of Government.
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 September 8.
It was the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, who under pressure, had made public Walrond’s Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States, in a response to a letter from Forde.
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.
