22 May, 2008 - Published 17:01 GMT

A question of allegiance

The talk in Jamaica is about whether the country will be forced to go back to the polls because of legal challenges over the dual nationalities of some government MPs.

The High Court has already disqualified one elected member from the House of Representatives, threatening the 32-28 margin the Jamaica Labour Party won at elections last September.

The disqualified MP is Daryl Vaz, a member of the ruling of Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

The court had also ordered a by-election for the vacant seat but that was being appealed by the opposition People’s National Party (PNP).

However JLP leader, Prime Minister Bruce Golding, has said that he would be prepared to go to the polls in new general elections, if the opposition succeeded in its bid to halt the by-election

On a visit to London this week, Mr Golding told BBC Caribbean that he was confident that the “matter could be resolved” and that “there were a number of options to resolving it.”

Options

One option, he said, was the dissolution of parliament. The other, a series of by-elections.

“I want to choose the option of that would be in the best interest of the country at this particular time,” Mr Golding told said during a visit to Bush House, the headquarters of the BBC World Service.

The dual citizenship issue is politically and constitutionally sensitive in Jamaica.

Already the country’s Supervisor of Elections, Danville Walker, has stepped down voluntarily as he holds both Jamaican and US citizenships.
(see related story)

And Mr Golding has indicated to BBC Caribbean that there could be more casualties among sitting parliamentarians in addition to the JLP MP Dayrl Vaz who, the court ruled against, and who has since given up his US passport.

“There are other cases that fall generally within that broad (scope). There are some that generally perhaps would have to be looked at," he said.

A matter of allegiance

The Jamaica prime minister also said he doesn’t believe that the process should be delayed and added: “I just believe that we have to be very clear – our allegiance must be to Jamaica and Jamaica alone.

“If there’s anybody whose allegiance may be in question, may have been diluted because of some external allegiance, I just believe that we have to be very clear.”

Is the law 'an ..s?'

Prime Minister Golding also outlined a scenario which he feels makes the case for constitutional change regarding the present dual citizenship controversy.

He explained: “under the constitution (of Jamaica) a person born in England, who is a UK citizen without any connection to Jamaica, can travel to Jamaica without a passport, live there for at least 12 months and stand for parliament under the existing constitution.

As he succinctly put it, “there’s an old saying that the law is an a..s.

"I hope that the (Jamaica) constitution doesn’t fall into that.”

Number 10 visit

On Tuesday morning, Mr Golding met his UK counterpart Gordon Brown.

He said afterwards that he had raised the issue of helping heavily-indebted middle income countries like Jamaica and others in Caricom, the grouping of Caribbean community states.

The British leader had given a commitment to look at this issue at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Kampala last November.

At the Tuesday meeting, Mr Golding said he raised it again with prime minister Brown.

The two discussed the need to reform the multi-lateral framework.

Mr Golding said afterwards that he'd pointed out that the current global economic crisis could take away interest from and push these middle-income issues to the peripherary.

But he said that the fall-out from rising global food prices and other economic problems could erode the growth attained to date by middle-income nations.

EPA message

At a meeting with British-based media editors later, Mr Golding said that this week's visit was also to promote work on the new trade deals with Europe - the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPAs).

He said that the EPAs, which go into force in July "pose for us both dangers but also opportunities," adding that Jamaica would need to pick the opportunities while avoiding the dangers.

The Jamaican leader said that his administration would be offering an economic environment in which global investors could produce goods at cheaper costs and then use Jamaica as a gateway to Europe.

"What we're trying to do is something like what Ireland did."

Mr Golding and his team will spend the rest of the week attending Jamaican diaspora meetings across the UK.