ACTING Chief Justice, Roxane George, on Thursday, at the Demerara High Court, ruled that the appointment of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister, Oneidge Walrond, was unlawful.
The Chief Justice also granted another declaration stating that Walrond was not a lawful member of the 12th Parliament of Guyana when she was sworn in on September 1, 2020.
In November, Opposition A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition had approached the High Court seeking a declaration to have Walrond moved from her seat in the National Assembly, which they claimed she is illegally occupying.

The fixed date application was filed in the name of Opposition Chief Whip, Christopher Jones, as the applicant, by attorneys-at-law Senior Counsel Roysdale Ford, Mayo Robertson, Raphael Trotman, Geeta Chandan-Edmond, Amanza Walton-Desir, Olayne Joseph and Darren Wade
Walrond was listed as the respondent in the case along with Attorney-General Anil Nandlall and Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir.
During the commencement of the virtual hearing on Thursday, Attorney-General Nandlall conceded that Government recognises that Walrond’s appointment might have collided with the Constitution of Guyana, since, at the time, she was still a citizen of the United States of America when she took the oath to become a minister and parliamentarian.
However, Nandlall said that Government had already taken the necessary steps to rectify that breach by having Walrond re-sworn as a Minster on December 1, 2020, by President Dr. Irfaan Ali. At the next practical sitting of National Assembly, she will be sworn in as a Member of Parliament.
The Chief Justice granted the application and declared that attorney-at-law Walrond was not a lawful member of the National Assembly of the 12th Parliament of Guyana and was also not lawfully appointed as a minister before December 1.

In light of Walrond re-taking her oath of office, the Chief Justice noted that she does not see the need for the Speaker of the National Assembly to prevent Walrond from sitting in or participating in the business of the National Assembly.

Lastly, the Chief Justice ordered that Walrond pay $75,000 in court costs to Christopher Jones.
In his grounds for the application, Jones had stated that Walrond took the Oath of Office of a Minister of Government on August 5, 2020, although she was not named in the List of Candidates presented by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic in accordance with the Representation of the People Act Cap. 1.03 for the March 2nd General and Regional Elections.
However, in October 2020, Walrond issued a press statement stating that on August 18, she wrote to the United States Consular Office and renounced her citizenship to the United States of America with immediate effect. The process was finished by August 27 and she received her Certificate of Loss of Nationality.
Nevertheless, on September 1, 2020, Walrond took the Oath of a Member of the National Assembly and it was there during the First Session of the 12th Parliament, that she was recorded as a Cabinet Member and a Non-Elected Minister.

Jones had contended that by doing so, Walrond is not a valid and legal member of the National Assembly and minster since at the time she had her dual citizenship.

To back up this ground for the application, Jones listed Article 155 of the Constitution which states: “(1) No person shall be qualified for election as a member of the National Assembly who, (a) is, by virtue of his or her own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.”
In the court document, Jones said: “As member of the National Assembly, it is right and proper that I insist and demand that there be full and complete compliance with the Constitution.”
The minister was not a candidate for the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) in the March 02, 2020 elections, but was selected to be a technocrat minister, which means that she has no voting power in the National Assembly. The Constitution provides for four technocrats to sit in the National Assembly, once they meet the citizenship requirement to do so.
The issue of dual citizenship came up in 2019, after former AFC member, Charrandass Persaud, crossed the floor in favour of the then Opposition PPP/C in a No-Confidence Motion against the APNU+AFC Government in December 2018.

Following legal challenges, the Court of Appeal ruled that a person holding dual citizenship was not entitled to be a member of the National Assembly.
In 2019, this led to the relinquishment of foreign citizenship by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira and her colleagues, Adrian Anamayah and Odinga Lumumba. It also saw former ministers of government Joseph Harmon, Carl Greenidge, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine and Dominic Gaskin resigning as MPs, while Harmon and Greenidge relinquished their foreign citizenships.