7 News Belize

UDP Objects to Schakron Candidacy
posted (February 16, 2012)
Tomorrow is nomination day for General Election candidates - but dual national and PUP Lake-I candidate Yolanda Schakron may be barred from offering herself for office because she is a US citizen.

An unusual government press release was issued this afternoon explaining that a formal objection to her nomination has been delivered to the Returning Officer for Lake Independence, Noreen Fairweather, by a voter registered in Lake-I.

According to the release, the voter's objection is based on the ground that Schakron is disqualified from being nominated or elected as a member of the House of Representatives because section 58(1) (a) of the Belize Constitution which states that that 'no person shall be qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives who is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or State.'

Schakron - by her own admission - is a US citizen and holds a U.S. Passport which she renewed in July, 2002.

Now this has never happened before, so we're in uncharted waters here, but we'll try to break down for you what it all means. The objection is a strategy, no doubt, being carried out by the UDP - to disqualify Schakron from offering herself as a candidate.

The decision will have to be made by the returning officer Noreen Fairweather who, presumably, would have to act on legal advice to determine if Schakron is indeed disqualified from running.

And 7news has learned that this evening, the PUP has filed an application for an injunction against the returning officer, arguing that the law which gives her the power to decide who can be nominated is unconstitutional - that such a decision can only be made by a judge.

That application is going to be heard in the Supreme Court at 9:00 tomorrow - right about the same time that the PUP procession is heading to the Elections and Boundaries office to take their candidates to be nominated.

So it's going to be right down to the wire. But the decision on whether Schakron is still a US Citizen is not nearly that close. She remains very much one - though the US Embassy has confirmed that she has started the renunciation process.

But so far she has only gone through one step of the process and there are four.

Political Officer for the US Embassy Eric Hayden told us this afternoon that Schakron started the process to renounce her US citizenship on February 14th. She is tentatively scheduled to take her oath of renunciation next week Tuesday, which is the 21st. February.

But that's only step two. After that, the paperwork has to go to the Department of State in Washington - which after review, and if they are satisfied that everything is in order, will issue a Certificate of Loss of Nationality. That is the final stage - and Hayden confirmed that it's only after that document is issued that a person is no longer considered a US citizen.

So how long does all that take? Well, there's no set time. Hayden told us that it's not a process which could possibly happen in a few weeks. But can it happen by March 7th? He said it's possible - but no one can say with certainty.

But, according to the UDP's objector to her candidacy, even if it's finished by next week that would be too late. The UDP's argument is that a person must be qualified for the House of Representatives at the time of nomination. They argue that if at the time a nominee is a US Citizen - they are barred from sitting in the National Assembly.

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