A court in Dominica has ruled that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and Education Minister Peter Saint Jean will face trial on charges that their election to parliament in 2009 was invalid as a consequence of their dual citizenship.
The issue has already clouded politics in St Kitts and Nevis and Jamaica, where four MPs have faced legal action for the same reasons.
In his 65-page ruling, Judge Errol Thomas concluded that there were substantial grounds for a court to hear the petitions against the two Dominica MPs.
A member of the opposition United Workers Party (UWP), Maynard Joseph, had petitioned the court to disqualify Mr Skerrit on the grounds that he “at the time of his nomination and at the material time, was a person by his own act under an acknowledgement of allegiance and/or adherence to a foreign power of state, namely the Republic of France.”
Child citizen
Mr Skerrit publicly acknowledged his French citizenship when the matter was raised during the run-up to December’s general election.
During campaigning, a former UWP Prime Minister, Edison James, had taunted Mr Skerrit on the subject.
He said; “Under our constitution, if a person becomes a national, a citizen of a foreign land and is under allegiance to that foreign country and he became a citizen of that country by his own free will…it is not his parents who did it for him, then that person cannot be eligible to be a (parliamentary) candidate.”
Mr Skerrit said he became a citizen of France as a child – not through his own deliberate judgement.
A smaller opposition group, the Dominica Freedom Party, had also called on the Electoral Commission to investigate Mr Skerrit’s eligibility to contest the vote.
But the board approved the nomination and the prime minister went on to lead his Dominica Labour Party (DLP) to a resounding victory 18-3 victory over the UWP.
In addition to the nationality suits, the UWP filed motions to challenge the results in five constituencies claiming irregularities, bribery and fraud.
On Wednesday the judge rejected those motions.
Without merit
UWP political leader Ron Green told reporters that he was pleased with the court decision on the dual nationality issue.
He was defeated by Mr Saint Jean by a mere two votes in the election.
Attorney General Francine Baron Royer said the cases were “without merit” and then was confident that the government would be successful in the full trial.
The Legal Affairs Minister, Ian Douglas, denied that the government might be destabilised as a result of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Prime Minister.
“The court has its job to do and we will await the court’s decision, but in the meantime we continue to run the country with the Honourable Roosevelt Skerrit as the duly elected legitimate Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica.”
Former senior Eastern Caribbean High Court Judge, Sir Brian Alleyne, who is a former Dominica cabinet minister, said Mr Skerrit faced losing his seat and the prime ministership if the opposition could prove he was under allegiance to France.
Foreign passport
Sir Brian told BBC Caribbean that it was not so much dual nationality but “allegiance” to a foreign state which was the issue under the island’s constitution.
He said: “If a person has done an act which indicated allegiance such as using a foreign passport and therefore asserting his allegiance to this foreign country or for instance, applying for and receiving a passport as an adult, that is an act of allegiance which would fall, apparently, under the provisions of the constitution.”
Sir Brian also pointed that, should Mr Skerrit lose the case and a by-election were ordered, he could contest that vote were he to renounce his French citizenship.
