PNP remains silent on state of Hay-Webster seat
Published:Tuesday | June 28, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
THE OPPOSITION People's National Party (PNP) is reportedly readying its electoral machinery in South Central St Catherine in anticipation of a possible by-election in the constituency.
It has remained silent, however, on the status of embattled Member of Parliament (MP) Sharon Hay-Webster, whose standing as a parliamentarian is in question.
Up to press time yesterday, there was no word from the PNP about how it would be treating with the Hay-Webster issue.
This is despite pronouncements by the party a month ago that its position would be made known within a week.
PNP President Portia Simpson Miller had said she had given certain instructions but refused to say what the instructions were.
Aundré Franklin, general secretary of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), said the fact that the PNP has gone silent for over a month on the Hay-Webster issue was a bad commentary on Simpson Miller.
"The party's inaction on the issue continues to demonstrate the inability of Portia Simpson Miller as leader of the PNP and opposition leader to protect the Constitution of the country," Franklin said.
Minority leader in the St Catherine Parish Council, where she is councillor for the Linstead division, Denise Daley, is set to be the PNP's standard-bearer.
JLP never won seat
The JLP, which has never won the seat created in 1993, is to field Twickenham Park's councillor Donavan Guy as the candidate, should there be a by-election.
Hay-Webster, a three-time MP, has been accused of being in breach of the Constitution as a result of her dual-citizenship status. The Constitution prohibits persons who, by their own acts are under the acknowledgement of allegiance to a foreign power, from serving in the Parliament.
The opposition MP has claimed her status as an American citizen was obtained at birth, as she was born in the United States, and she is, therefore, qualified to serve in the House of Representatives.
She had also signalled her intention to renounce her US citizenship, and refused to comment on her status until a US diplomatic cable indicated she had flip-flopped on the issue.
In the diplomatic cable obtained through the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, the American Embassy in Kingston alleges that the PNP MP visited its offices on July 31, 2009, to renounce her US citizenship, only to return four days later to withdraw the renunciation.
"Nevertheless, over a week later, The Gleaner published an article on the MP's renunciation with no mention of its withdrawal, suggesting that the MP intends to leave the public impression of having renounced US citizenship," the embassy claims in the cable dated August 17, 2009.
Referenced article
The article referenced in the cable appeared in The Sunday Gleaner on August 2, 2009, and was titled ''I will renounce!' Hay-Webster to give up US citizenship'.
"I told my constituency executive on Friday night that I intend to renounce, and the party chairman is also aware … . I told them I have been in discussion with the embassy already," she had told The Sunday Gleaner.
Gleaner sources had later said the PNP was in the process of working out an exit strategy for Hay-Webster, who the party agreed should resign.
Hay-Webster, in a letter to the editor, said, "... When I attended the US Embassy in 2009 with the intention to renounce, it was before receiving legal advice as to the constitutionality of my status.
"A few days later, I sought and received legal advice from a local as well as a US attorney, and based on that advice, telephoned the US Embassy and advised that I would not be proceeding with the exercise."