Brits can run for Assembly

Hon McKeeva Bush	MLA Alden McLaughlin

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

Through a clerical error made in the UK, the constitutional amendment recently passed by the Privy Council has created a situation where British citizens with Caymanian Status can run for elected office in the Cayman Islands without renouncing their British citizenship.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has advised the Cayman Islands Government that the error cannot be changed prior to the upcoming election in November.

The Privy Council will not rise again before the start of the Michaelmas term, which runs between 4 October and 16 December, according to C. Duffield of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Nomination day in the Cayman Islands is 6 October.

The Leader of Government Business, Hon McKeeva Bush, announced the problem at the closing press briefing of the Caribbean and Bermuda Overseas Territories Chief Ministers’ Conference last Friday.

The constitutional amendment became necessary because of conflict between Cayman Islands Constitution, which does not allow persons with dual citizenship to run for public office, and the 2002 British Overseas Territories Act, which effectively gave all Caymanians dual citizenship.

Without the amendment, virtually no one would have qualified under the Cayman Islands Constitution to stand for election this November.

A motion was passed this July to recommend to the UK government that section 18 of the Constitution be amended so as to exclude for the definition of dual citizenship those Caymanians who received British Citizenship solely by virtue of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002.

The recommendation was communicated to the FCO and heard by the Privy Council on 27 July, and subsequently laid before Parliament of 9 August.

However, the text sent from the FCO to the Privy Council omitted the part of the phraseology, so that it now excludes all British Citizens from the dual citizenship restriction, rather than just those who obtained British citizenship by virtue of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002.

The FCO has apologised to the Cayman Islands Government for the error. A senior FCO official said: “From our enquiries, it unfortunately seems that, although the wording you sought had received ministerial approval, in the haste to send the draft Order to the Privy Council to ensure that it could be made on 27 July, a clerical error meant that the text that was sent from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to the Privy Council omitted the relevant phrase. The order that was made therefore lacks this wording. We can only apologise most sincerely for the unintended error.”

The Hon McKeeva Bush said that he was not happy with the development. “But there’s nothing we can do about until after the election,” he said. “I am confident, however, that Caymanians will take this in their stride and will rise above what is basically nothing more than a technicality and that the spirit and intent of the Cayman Islands Constitution will be upheld.”

The People’s Progressive Movement’s General Secretary, MLA Alden McLaughlin, who was on the select committee that drafted the recommended amendment said that the objective was to ensure that those persons who qualified to stand for election prior to the coming into effect of the British Overseas Territories Act 2002 continued to be qualified.

“It was about preserving the status quo,” he said, “not about widening the category of persons who can stand for election. Fundamental changes to the Constitution should only come as a result of the constitutional review process and the approval of the people of the Cayman Islands.”

Mr Bush said that in the future, he expected the error to be corrected in line with the principles and spirit of the 1972 Constitution.

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