Bills are response to election petitions challenging Godwin Friday and fellow politician’s eligibility to be MPs because of dual citizenship
The St Vincent and the Grenadines government has delayed a controversial effort to amend a section of the country’s constitution that the opposition says renders the prime minister ineligible for his position in parliament.
Two bills, among six listed for the parliament session on Tuesday this week, were aimed at clarifying a section of the 1979 constitution governing the citizenship eligibility of members of parliament.
The bills were drafted after the country’s opposition filed election petitions, due to be heard at the eastern Caribbean supreme court in July, questioning the eligibility of Godwin Friday, who became prime minister in November, and Dwight Fitzgerald Bramble, an MP – both of whom hold Canadian as well as Vincentian citizenship.
But amid online outrage and demonstrations near parliament – with protesters brandishing placards that read “constitutional change without the voice of the people” and “Friday and Bramble protecting their Canadian passports” – Friday told MPs he would delay the bills to allow more public debate on the issue.
