WikiLeak Cables: PNP was split over dual-citizenship strategy

There is more information emerging to suggest there was a rift in the leadership of the People's National Party (PNP) over its decision to pursue legal challenges against dual citizenship.

The new information comes at a time when political insiders are claiming that Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Sharon Hay-Webster is on the verge of resigning and her colleague, Ian Hayles, is also being pressured to resign by senior members of the PNP.

Hay-Webster, the three-term MP for South Central St Catherine and Hayles, who is in his first term as MP for Western Hanover, are now facing what five government MPs have already faced over their citizenship status.

Though both matters are before the courts, Hay-Webster, a well-respected and loved member of the opposition benches, has reportedly decided to walk even before the court makes a ruling in a case she argues is different from those already determined.

But it appears that there are some in the senior ranks of the PNP who believe that missteps by the party caused it to come to this.

bad move

The United States Embassy in Kingston has reported that there were people in the PNP who told the party that the decision to go after government MPs with dual citizenship was a bad move in the first place.

"According to embassy sources within the PNP, many within the opposition party do not support (Abe) Dabdoub's attempt to gain a seat in Parliament (West Portland) at all costs," the embassy said in a diplomatic cable dated May 2008.

"Some (PNP insiders) now speculate that Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller was not properly briefed on the possible repercussions of a litigious approach to contesting the elections," the cable said.

The embassy was reacting to the May 2008 resignation of Danville Walker as the director of elections and pointing to this as a repercussion of the PNP's dual-citizenship challenge against four government MPs.

"His (Walker) resignation comes at an inauspicious time, as the possibility of a rash of by-elections or a snap general election looms large on the horizon," said the cable.

It argued that Walker "has developed a reputation as a no-nonsense leader who is politically neutral" and would leave the scene at a time when Prime Minister Bruce Golding had declared that he would not let anyone sit in Parliament through a legal technicality who had not been elected by the voters.

The embassy noted that talks were being held to settle the dual-citizenship controversy out of court without the need for any by-elections, but those failed resulting in five persons on the government benches being forced to resign and face the electorate in by-elections, all be it successfully once again.

That prompted the JLP to move after Hay-Webster and Hayles with court challenges of their eligibility to sit in the House.

But even as those matters were meandering through the courts, The Gleaner's revelation, through cables acquired by WikiLeaks, that Hay-Webster had submitted documents to renounce her US citizenship and then withdrawn them four days later sparked a firestorm.

With charges of deceit and deception being levelled against her, Hay-Webster has found herself facing a snowball rolling downhill as the calls for her resignation mount.