Basseterre,St.Kitts – At a press conference held Wednesday, July 1st at the Ocean Terrace Inn the Leadership of the People’s Action Movement gave the official announcement that Political Leader Lindsay Grant and Deputy Political Leader the Hon. Shawn Richards had formally renounced their citizenship of the United States.
On Monday, June 29th and Tuesday, June 30th Mr. Grant and the Mr. Richards travelled to the nearest United States Embassy in Barbados and took the oath of renunciation.
Hon. Lindsay Grant
The issue of dual citizenship had been in the news for over a year and had become a major campaign issue of the ruling Labour Administration despite the fact that two of its Ministers had acknowledged dual citizenship and several others were rumoured to.
Hon. Shawn Richards
The issue arises out of s 27 of the Constitution which suggests that naturalized citizens of foreign jurisdictions are debarred from sitting in the Federal Parliament. It posed a potential problem in an election campaign in which the ruling Labour Party is desperate to find any underhanded means to bolster its position at the polls.
