Friday’s Dual Citizenship a red-flag for Gonsalves

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has vowed to make a campaign issue out of dual citizenship of his political opponent, Dr Godwin Friday, leader of the opposition New Democratic Party (NDP).

That declaration was made by the Prime Minister and leader of the governing Unity Labour Party (ULP) at a press conference on Monday June 3, 2024, at which he spoke specifically about the billboard erected at Gibson Corner by the NDP. The bill board highlights the record number of homicides committed in 2023 in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) and states that crime is out of control.

At Monday’s press conference, Gonsalves maintained his earlier pronouncement that the NDP was trying to “mash up the economy”, and doubled down on the opposition leader being the holder of a Canadian passport alongside that of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

In chiding the NDP over the bill board, Gonsalves had referred to Friday as the Canadian from Bequia, on account of him having dual citizenship.

He charged that the NDP leader has the Canadian passport to be used as a bolt hole when he, with external support, causes damage to the local economy, and the citizenship issue had therefore become one which should receive national attention

“…because he and his foreign advisors decide to pull down St Vincent and the Grenadines with the billboard about crime in St Vincent”.

“My view is that no one should aspire to lead a country if he is a citizen of another country,” Gonsalves stated emphatically at the press conference, noting that the opposition leader was holding his Vincentian passport in his back pocket, while proudly holding his Canadian visa in front.

He was adamant too, that the timing of the erection of the bill board was not co-incidental; it was placed “…on the way to Sandals when we had 500 people here, the best reporters in tourism- the agents from all over the world. For what purpose?

He insisted that the intention of the NDP in erecting the bill board was to discourage people from going to Sandals, “because St Clair Leacock [NDP vice president] had said that Sandals investing too much money down there”.

“The Canadian, Lorraine Friday…will hear this from now until the next general election because this question has to be on the forefront of the peoples’ mind; what the New Democratic Party did with that billboard.”

He added that if Dr Friday fails once again in the next general elections, he will always have a place where he can go and have a life.

“Dog does run away, cat does run away, and Friday will run way too because he has Canada to go to. I’m not mincing my word on this. I don’t have any passport other than the one of St Vincent and the Grenadines.”