Walrond’s appointment as Tourism Minister, MP unlawful – Chief Justice

…all decisions made by her still legal – Attorney General

Underlining his Government’s commitment to respecting the rule of law and upholding the Constitution of Guyana, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has conceded that the initial appointments of Oneidge Walrond as Tourism, Industry, and Commerce Minister and as Member of Parliament (MP) were done in breach of the Constitution.

The Attorney General made this admission on Thursday before Chief Justice Roxane George during the hearing of an application filed by Opposition Chief Whip Christopher Jones, who had asked the court to declare the appointment unlawful, as it breached Articles 103 (3), 105, and 155 (1) of the Constitution.
In court documents seen by this publication, Jones had argued that the facts were “clear and indisputable”: that at the time she was sworn in as Minister on August 5, 2020, and as a Member of Parliament on September 1, 2020, Walrond held dual citizenship in both USA and Guyana.

Article 155 (1) prevents dual citizens from sitting in the National Assembly. It states: “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 acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state.”
The Government had rebuffed Jones’s contention, insisting that there was nothing unconstitutional about Minister Walrond’s appointments. However, on Thursday, Nandlall, who appeared on behalf of Minister Walrond, admitted that her appointments “may have collided with the Constitution.”
“There was a recognition that the appointment was not done in accordance with the constitution,” the Attorney General said. According to him, the Government has since taken steps to rectify this constitutional violation by having Walrond re-sworn as Minister on December 01, 2020 before President Irfaan Ali.

Nandlall added that Minister Walrond will be taking a new oath as an unelected Member of Parliament at the next sitting of the National Assembly.
For his part, Jones’s lawyer Roysdale Forde, an Opposition MP, asked the Chief Justice to award costs against Minister Walrond, as their arguments had been dismissed by the Minister’s lawyers.
The Attorney General, however, opposed this.
In the end, the Chief Justice declared that Minister Walrond “is not” a lawful MP. She also made another declaration: that Walrond’s initial appointment as a Minister of the Government was unlawful.
Justice George made an award for court costs of $75,000 against the minister.

Still legal
Government and the Opposition are presently at odds over decisions made by the Tourism Minister before December 01, 2020. The APNU/AFC said it is the Coalition’s view that all actions, appointments and decisions made and taken by Minister Walrond while she was an illegal Minister are null and void, and of no consequence or effect.
The Coalition is now demanding that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) rescind every such action, appointment, and decision, consistent with the ruling of the Chief Justice. The APNU/AFC also wants Minister Walrond to refund all state salaries and emoluments.
The Attorney General, however, maintains that the legality of all actions and/or decisions of Minister Walrond before December 01, 2020 would be saved and cured by the De Facto Doctrine and the Doctrine of Necessity – a proposition with which he said the Chief Justice has concurred.
Nandlall informed that Government adopted this position because there is no need for protracted, time-consuming, and unnecessary litigation, as keeping the case languishing in the court would result in an unnecessary cloud and burden over Minister Walrond.
According to him, the Minister’s “undivided attention and energy are required in the discharge of her ministerial responsibilities as part of the Government’s agenda of improving the lives of the citizenry and working towards creating a better Guyana for all.”

Nothing illegal
Days after Jones filed the case challenging her appointment, Minister Walrond, during an engagement with the media, had insisted that she had full legal right to sit as a parliamentarian.
“I have done nothing illegal, and I continue to sit in the National Assembly as a legal representative. The act of renunciation is a unilateral act. The legal standard is when a citizen has done all that is within her power to renounce. I am confident that I have done everything in my power to act morally,” Minister Walrond had said.
Minister Walrond had previously said that she was mindful of the constitutional provision which prohibits dual citizens from sitting in the National Assembly, and, as such, sought legal advice. The Minister had stated that even though she was informed that this provision did not apply to her as a Technocrat Minister, out of an abundance of caution, she decided to renounce her US citizenship.
“I wrote to the US Consular Office on August 18, 2020, renouncing my citizenship of the United States of America with immediate effect. I was thereof informed of the administrative procedure I must comply with to obtain a Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States. I complied with that process by August 27, 2020. I have since received the Certificate of Loss of Nationality. I took the oath to the National Assembly on September 1, 2020. That was after I renounced my citizenship of the United States of America,” the Minister had said.

Acceptable
However, the APNU/AFC said that documents obtained from the Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, confirm that the Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States bearing Walrond’s name shows that she took the oath of renunciation, an expatriating act, on September 4, 2020, three days after she was sworn in as a parliamentarian.
According to the APNU/AFC, Consular Section Chief of the United States of America Embassy in Georgetown subscribed her name and seal of her office on September 4, 2020. The coalition said the Tourism Minister’s Certificate of Loss of Nationality of the United States was approved on September 8, 2020 by the Overseas Citizens Services of the Department of State.
Amidst all this, Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir, was previously reported as saying that Walrond’s renunciation was “acceptable.”