By Lisa Hamilton
COMMISSIONERS of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) have made it clear, for the final time, that the three presidential candidates, who were dual citizens when they signed a Statutory Declaration Form which required that they be solely Guyanese, have been removed from their parties’ lists.

Since the six commissioners first made the announcement some weeks back, presidential candidate for the United Republican Party (URP), Dr Vishnu Bandhu; presidential candidate for the People’s Republic Party(PRP), Dr Valerie Leung and candidate for the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP), Lenox Shuman have been seeking to write their way back on to the list.
The leaders or their lawyers have sent letters to the commission explaining why they were not in breach of Article 155 of the Constitution or the Statutory Declaration Act, although the commission has evidence which proves otherwise. On Tuesday, Shuman held a press conference claiming that he renounced his Canadian citizenship on January 9, 2020, just one day before Nominations Day, but the commissioners maintain that the LJP leader is simply trying to talk his way back unto the list.

“I don’t know what Mr Shuman is saying; Mr Shuman sent this commission a long, long, long, long multi-page letter from a lawyer which we are still looking at,” Commissioner Bibi Shadick told the media.

“On the day that they took that oath, all three of those people were not entitled to be on any list…I saw a document from Mr Bandhu that was dated January 16th and I just saw a document from Ms Leung —- a certification or renunciation — which was dated the 21st which is long after Nomination Day any way.”
The three had signed Statutory Declaration Forms as candidates to contest of the upcoming General and Regional Elections, but possessed dual citizenship at the time.
To be signatory to the form while a dual citizen is in breach of Articles 53 and 155 of the Constitution and makes a person liable to imprisonment for one year according to the Statutory Declaration Act, Chapter 5:09.

GECOM has written to the police on the matter and still awaits a response. Meanwhile, Shuman and Leung are arguing that from the time they put their signature to their renunciation forms, they were no longer dual citizens.

To this, Commissioner Vincent Alexander responded: “At the point when Shuman made his declarations he had not been renounced and note my words, had not been renounced. You don’t simply sign a form and renounce and that’s it. If one gets an opportunity to read the form they have to sign, that form in itself makes it very clear that one’s citizenship is not renounced until the application has been processed and this attempt to suggest that ‘because I signed renouncing, automatically I no longer have dual citizenship’ is erroneous.”
The two have also argued that GECOM does not have the right to remove a candidate from its list as the law empowers only the High Court to so do.

However, Alexander said that while the commission has not collectively responded to the same, his own interpretation is that it makes no sense to have a Constitution which clearly bars them from making false declarations and the commission cannot act on the said Constitution.

While Shuman has accused the commissioners of being politically motivated, hence their removal of him from his party’s list, Commissioner Alexander has cautioned that his statements borders on defamation of character.

“I will be consulting my lawyers on this matter because Shuman is bordering on defamation of character,” he said.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Robeson Benn summarised: “As far as I’m aware, there’s no reason for the commission to change its position with respect to their eligibility.”