Lenox Shuman promises to prove that he no longer holds dual citizenship

Last Updated on Wednesday, 2 September 2020, 19:44 by Denis Chabrol

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Lenox Shuman has given an undertaking to the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs that he will shortly submit documents to prove that he is no longer the holder of  Canadian citizenship.

Mr. Shuman met with Mr. Isaacs on Wednesday.

The Clerk of the National says Mr. Shuman informed him that he will arrange for his family overseas to post his renunciation certificate to Guyana for submission to the Parliament Office.

Mr. Isaacs says Mr. Shuman has  in the interim promised to obtain a letter from the Canadian High Commission showing that he is no longer a Canadian citizen.

Mr. Shuman, who is Leader of the Liberty and Justice Party, is an opposition parliamentarian.

However, he was nominated and elected by the 33 government parliamentarians to be Deputy Speaker.

The 31-seat opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change which had nominated Mr. Raphael Trotman subsequently walked out of the sitting of the National Assembly in protest over Mr. Shuman’s appointment.

Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon’s renunciation certificate, proving that he is no longer an American citizen, was delivered to the Clerk of the National Assembly on Wednesday after a mixup on Tuesday when the first sitting of the  12th Parliament was held.

Due to the Guyana Court of Appeal ruling, then government ministers Harmon, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, Dominic Gaskin and Carl Greenidge resigned from Parliament and gave up their ministerial portfolios.

Following the December 2018 no-confidence motion in which Guyanese-Canadian parliamentarian Charrandass Persaud, Guyana’s courts had ruled that it is unconstitutional for foreign nationals to become parliamentarians.

The Clerk of the National Assembly on Monday wrote those current parliamentarians, who had held dual citizenship in the 2015-2019 Parliament, to prove that they have given them up. “I am therefore asking those members  who held allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or State during the Eleventh Parliament, and have relinquished same, to submit proof of relinquishment to me,” Mr. Isaacs told Parliamentarians