Hunt begins for dual citizens in Parliament

Many MPs, especially those in the Opposition, waxed eloquent on the virtues of checks and balances during the recent parliamentary debate on the 22^nd Amendment to the Constitution Bill, which was ratified, last week, with the Opposition voting for it overwhelmingly. (It has become law as the 21^st Amendment by default because the original amendment proposed by the SJB to replace the 20^th Amendment did not pass muster with the Supreme Court and therefore withered on the vine.) The proponents of the 22^nd Amendment Bill insisted that they had come together to ensure its ratification because they were keen to strengthen the legislature by reducing some of the executive powers of the President. But what actually drove them to support the Bill has now become clear; they wanted to prevent Basil Rajapaksa, a dual citizen, from entering the parliament; the Bill contained a section debarring dual citizens from becoming MPs. The hunt has already begun for dual citizens in the parliament!

Perhaps, it was to secure the support of the Opposition and the rebel SLPP MPs for the task of amending the Constitution that the framers of the 22^nd Amendment Bill inserted the section on dual citizens. There was no way a two-thirds majority could be mustered without their help. It was obvious that some SLPP MPs would not vote for the Bill, which, they knew, would jeopardize the interests of Basil, but one could see that it would still be possible to raise enough numbers in the House with the help of the Opposition to secure a special majority.

Dissident SLPP MP Udaya Gammanpila, who is at the forefront of a campaign to prevent Basil from making a comeback as an MP, lost no time in demanding that information about the dual citizens in the current parliament be revealed to the public. He has submitted a Right to Information request to the parliament in this regard. His erstwhile companion, Champika Ranawaka, has asked the MPs who are dual citizens to leave the parliament honorably before being removed. An active member of the SLPP dissident group, Prof. Channa Jayasumana, MP, has also called for the removal of dual citizens from the parliament.

It is believed that there are about 10 dual citizens among the members of the current parliament. When the last general election was held, in 2020, the 19^th Amendment to the Constitution was in force, and dual citizens were disqualified from contesting; among them was Basil. In fact, it was to prevent Basil from entering the parliament that the Yahapalana government prevented dual citizens from becoming MPs, in 2015. So, how come there are dual citizens in the House?

If the Opposition’s claim that some MPs are dual citizens is true, then one can surmise that they did not disclose their dual nationality prior to the 2020 general election. It may be recalled that Geetha Kumarasinghe lost her parliamentary seat in 2017, because she was found to be a dual citizen. Some voters from the Galle District successfully moved the Court of Appeal against her, and later the Supreme Court dismissed her appeal. She contested the 2020 election and re-entered the parliament after giving up her dual citizenship. She is now calling for action against the MPs with dual nationality!

The 19^th Amendment became a massive hurdle for Gotabaya as well ahead of the 2019 presidential election. It was widely thought that he would not be able to renounce his US citizenship in time for nominations. Two civil society activists, Gamini Viyangoda and Chandraguptha Thenuwara, filed a case in the Court of Appeal, claiming that Gotabaya had renounced his Sri Lankan citizenship in 2003 to become a US citizen, and had not become a citizen of Sri Lanka again in a proper manner; they requested the court to cancel his Sri Lankan citizenship. Their plan was to disqualify him from running for President, and thereby derail the SLPP’s presidential election campaign. But the court dismissed their case on Oct. 04, clearing the way for him to contest. His political opponents, however, did not give up the fight. They threatened action against the Election Commission, which, they said, should not have accepted Gotabaya’s nomination. They floated rumors that the US had not officially announced the renunciation of his citizenship, and therefore he would be disqualified from holding the presidency even if he won the election. Their plans went awry, and he became the President.

Immediately after its mammoth victory at the general election, where it obtained as many as 145 seats, the SLPP, with the help of some crossovers, introduced the 20^th Amendment to the Constitution to restore the presidential powers that the 19^th Amendment had removed. It wanted to strengthen President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s position.

When the government proposed the removal of the section on dual citizens through the 20^th Amendment, some of its MPs who wanted to prevent Basil from returning to the parliament, raised objections. Among them were Wimal Weerawansa and Gammanpila. They openly called for the retention of that particular section, and had President Rajapaksa believe that they would not vote for 20^th Amendment unless their demand was granted. The President found himself in a spot. He held several rounds of talks with Gammanpila, Weerawansa and others and managed to persuade them to vote for the 20^th Amendment and promised to ensure that the new Constitution to be written would have provision for preventing dual citizens from entering the parliament. Basil, who controls the SLPP, turned hostile toward those who tried to keep him out of the parliament, and their enmity led to the expulsion of Gammanpila and Weerawansa from the Cabinet and a subsequent split in the SLPP.

The 20^th Amendment enabled Basil to enter the parliament through the National List and become the Finance Minister, last year. The road seemed clear for him at that time as the economy looked somewhat stable, and the SLPP was strong despite its internal disputes. Nobody expected him to resign from the parliament about a year later due to public protests.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena is in an unenviable position. He has come under pressure from the Opposition MPs and the SLPP dissidents to take action, in keeping with the 21^st Amendment, against the MPs who are dual citizens. Some civil society organizations are also cranking up pressure on him to do so.

The People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL) has called on the Speaker to implement the ban on dual citizens, but he has said taking action against the MPs who are dual citizens is not within his province, and it is up to the Election Commission to do so. He is of the view that any citizen could resort to legal action against such MPs, and there is a precedent. His argument sounds tenable. So, those who are seeking the ouster of dual citizens from the parliament will have to move the Election Commission and/or the courts against the latter. It is going to be a long-drawn-out process.