AG Armour on dual citizenship: It's a non-issue

JUST 24 hours after being sworn in, new Attorney General Reginald Armour SC on Thursday rejected claims he was ineligible to be a senator.

This comes amid criticism from the Opposition and online critics saying he was debarred because he holds citizenship in both Trinidad and Tobago and Dominica.

"It is a non-issue," he told Newsday.

In a Facebook post, he was purportedly quoted as insisting he was validly appointed, denying criticism that his dual nationality prevented him from becoming a senator to join Cabinet under the TT Constitution.

Armour also sent Newsday a statement which was basically identical to the online post which read: "I am a proud citizen of TT. I am also by birth a citizen of Dominica. I carry and use my TT passport proudly. I do not possess or use a Dominica passport.

"In this regard, I am satisfied that I took my oath of office yesterday in full compliance with the Constitution of TT, which I am sworn to uphold."

The post was also sent to Newsday by Minister of Youth Development and National Service Foster Cummings, who is PNM general secretary.

Newsday inquired about Armour's eligibility by way of phone call and text message to Al-Rawi, Dr Rowley, House Leader Camille Robinson-Regis and Minister in the Office of the Prime Minister Stuart Young, but up to press time had got no response from any, and only later on got a reply from Armour.

Law Association president Sophia Chote SC told Newsday she did not know enough about Armour's status to comment.

A biography of Armour posted on two websites, CCJ Academy for Law and his law firm Dialogue Solutions said, "He is a citizen of the Republic of TT and of the Commonwealth of Dominica where he continues to maintain an active practice."

Opposition Senator Wade Mark raised the matter at a UNC news conference on Thursday at the Opposition Leader's office on Charles Street, Port of Spain.

"Were you born in TT?" Mark asked.

"If you were born in TT and they you have as a citizen of Dominica, how did you acquire your citizenship? Did you involuntarily acquire it?"

Mark wondered at Armour's position in any conflict between Dominica and TT.

"If conflicted loyalties arise between TT and the Commonwealth of Dominica, what will be your position Mr Attorney General? Where will your loyalty lie? Hence the reason we are calling on him to clear the air on the issue of his dual citizenship since it is a matter of grave concern in the public domain."

The Constitution (section 42) says, "No person shall be qualified to be appointed a senator who is a citizen of a country other than Trinidad and Tobago, having become such a citizen voluntarily or is under a declaration of allegiance to such country."

Armour is not the first politician over whom nationality questions have arisen.

However, unlike Armour's second nationality arising by him being born abroad, other cases arose when TT-born individuals had subsequently voluntarily acquired a foreign citizenship.

After the Basdeo Panday-led UNC had won a narrow victory in 2000 (19 UNC, 16 PNM, one NAR), PNM attorneys filed an election petition in the High Court to challenge the election of the UNC's Bill Chaitan and Winston "Gypsy" Peters, over dual nationality, the former allegedly holding TT and Canadian citizenship and the latter holding TT and US citizenship.

The PNM alleged the two had filed false nomination papers in breach of the Representation of the People Act, which says no candidate can have allegiance to any other state.

However, the 2001 general election came soon after and so superseded any need for the petitions.

More recently, Robert Le Hunte, a senator and former minister of public utilities in Rowley's first government, was stalled in his swearing-in owing to him having dual citizenship with TT and Ghana.

Le Hunte was sworn in, but then had to step down while he travelled to Ghana to renounce that citizenship and then returned to again be sworn in, validly.

In the 2020 general election, athlete Cleopatra Borel had sought the PNM nomination for Port of Spain South, but had to step down due to the fact of her having acquired dual citizenship with the US, which she apparently did not say she would renounce.