While declaring that the Government of Guyana is being “duplicitous”, by not removing its Members of Parliament who are dual citizens from the National Assembly, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo today said the MPs on his side that are dual citizens will be staying away from sittings, but not resigning.

Jagdeo appeared on the Jumpstart Morning Show on 94.1FM where News Source Chief Editor, Gordon Moseley questioned him about the dual citizenship issue.

“The thing is that they will not be at any sitting of the National Assembly, so they don’t have to resign”, Mr. Jagdeo said.

The High Court and the Court of Appeal, both ruled in the no-confidence cases, that Members of Parliament who are dual citizens are not qualified to be Members of Parliament in keeping with the Constitutional requirements for the post.

Both the Government and the Opposition have members who hold dual citizenship.

Last Friday, Minister of State, Joe Harmon, who is himself a dual citizen, told reporters that the Government will await the appeals that are before the Caribbean Court of Justice before it takes action against its Members of Parliament who are dual citizens.

He said he does not believe he will be sitting in the Parliament illegally when it is reconvened.

But the Opposition Leader this morning pointed out that Harmon and the other dual citizens on the Government should leave their posts.

He said “it would be illegal, immoral and unheard of that you want the Opposition to comply with a ruling but you don’t want to do it”.

When reminded that the law governing dual citizenship and their ineligibility to serve as Members of Parliament, has been around for several years, including under his government, the former President said lawmakers had turned a blind eye to the issue in the past and it was the current government that took the issue to Court.

He said if the Government had decided to keep its dual citizenship MPs out of the sitting but still hold on to the MP position, he would be less offended.

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