Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is warn­ing cit­i­zens to be vig­i­lant about pos­si­ble vot­er padding fol­low­ing the pas­sage of the Con­sti­tu­tion (Amend­ment) Bill in the Low­er House, which, if en­act­ed, would al­low in­di­vid­u­als to ac­quire cit­i­zen­ship by de­scent through a grand­par­ent.

Speak­ing on Fri­day when the bill was de­bat­ed, Min­is­ter of Sport and Youth Af­fairs Phillip Watts, who tabled the bill, stat­ed that the amend­ment will un­lock sig­nif­i­cant di­as­po­ra con­tri­bu­tions, both eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al.

A spe­cif­ic point of the de­bate has been its po­ten­tial im­pact on na­tion­al sports. The Gov­ern­ment sees the bill as a way to widen the pool of ath­letes avail­able for na­tion­al teams, with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion ex­press­ing its sup­port.

How­ev­er, the Op­po­si­tion Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment vot­ed against it on Fri­day, ex­press­ing strong reser­va­tions as it per­tained to spe­cif­ic claus­es. In a me­dia re­lease yes­ter­day, Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les said, “The PNM sup­port­ed as­pects of this bill, in par­tic­u­lar Clause 4(a), which seeks to amend Sec­tion 17(3) of the Con­sti­tu­tion, pro­vid­ing for the ac­qui­si­tion of cit­i­zen­ship by per­sons born out­side of Trinidad and To­ba­go if their grand­par­ent was born in Trinidad and To­ba­go. Such per­sons will qual­i­fy to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go in in­ter­na­tion­al sports and are there­fore po­ten­tial as­sets to our na­tion­al teams.”

How­ev­er, Beck­les high­light­ed is­sues with Clause 4 of the bill.

“The PNM did not and can­not agree with Claus­es 4(b) and (c) of the bill, which have opened the path­way for in­di­vid­u­als whose par­ents and grand­par­ents were not born in Trinidad and To­ba­go to ac­quire cit­i­zen­ship. Per­sons who ac­quire cit­i­zen­ship un­der these cir­cum­stances, based on the rules of in­ter­na­tion­al sport­ing agen­cies, will not qual­i­fy to rep­re­sent Trinidad and To­ba­go in­ter­na­tion­al­ly; there­fore, the UNC’s ar­gu­ment that these par­tic­u­lar amend­ments will boost our na­tion­al teams is en­tire­ly false,” she ar­gued.

Beck­les said the PNM re­peat­ed­ly called on the UNC to clar­i­fy who those claus­es were re­quired for. She said, “Ex­am­i­na­tion of sim­i­lar laws in oth­er coun­tries re­vealed that the amend­ments of Clause 4(b) and (c) were unique to Trinidad and To­ba­go-no oth­er coun­try has in­clud­ed such ex­pan­sions. The amend­ments of Clause 4(b) and (c) have se­ri­ous con­se­quences, which should be of con­cern to all cit­i­zens.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader be­lieves this opens the door to cor­rup­tion in this coun­try’s elec­toral process.

“While per­sons who at­tain cit­i­zen­ship with­out hav­ing par­ents or grand­par­ents born in Trinidad and To­ba­go will not be el­i­gi­ble to rep­re­sent the na­tion in in­ter­na­tion­al sports, they will have all the oth­er rights of cit­i­zens, in­clud­ing free school­ing, health care, and most im­por­tant­ly, the right to vote. Once such per­sons be­come cit­i­zens, they need on­ly re­side in an elec­toral dis­trict for two months be­fore the qual­i­fy­ing date for Gen­er­al Elec­tions to be placed on the elec­toral list for vot­ing!”

She added, “The pro­posed amend­ments of Clause 4(b) and (c) pave the way for se­ri­ous abus­es, in­clud­ing the risk of vot­er padding and oth­er forms of ma­nip­u­la­tion. The PNM will not com­pro­mise the in­tegri­ty of our de­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions by en­abling the mass grant­i­ng of cit­i­zen­ship to in­di­vid­u­als who lack gen­uine ties to our coun­try.”