By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

GEORGE Smith, a former Progressive Liberal Party Cabinet minister, does not want the Davis administration to address unequal rights to citizenship through ordinary legislation.

Attorney General Ryan Pinder has said the administration plans to address the issue.

The plan has the backing of former Prime Ministers Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie. Mr Ingraham told the press last week he is convinced the Davis administration will address the issue. Mr Christie agreed that a referendum on the matter should be avoided.

The Minnis administration pledged to address the matter through ordinary legislation, but never did.

Mr Smith, who was part of a delegation involved in 1972 discussions about the Constitution, said because the document is the supreme law of the land, ordinary legislation should not be used to nullify its provisions.

Efforts through a referendum to change the Constitution to equalise citizenship rights for men and women failed in 2002 and 2016.

“The reality is the Constitution is the supreme authority of the country,” Mr Smith said. “It’s the ultimate law of the country. Both Mr Ingraham and Mr Christie acknowledged, so both PLP and FNM acknowledged, the way to deal with these matters is through a constitutional amendment.

“I’m of the view that you shouldn’t try to bypass the Constitution by simply talking about amending the citizenship legislation.”

Mr Ingraham said he only had a constitutional referendum because he wanted to make it difficult for his successors to reverse the change.

Mr Smith could not say if providing equality through ordinary legislation would be illegal.

During a Rotary Club speech in 2017, then Attorney General Carl Bethel argued that the government could solve unequal rights to citizenship by amending section six of the Bahamas Nationality Act, removing the words a “minister may at his discretion cause the minor child of a citizen of The Bahamas to be registered as a citizen of The Bahamas upon application” and replacing them with “the minister shall cause the minor child of a citizen of The Bahamas to be registered as a citizen of The Bahamas upon application.”

Meanwhile, Attorney General Ryan Pinder recently told The Nassau Guardian that the government will not abandon its Privy Council appeal on a landmark citizenship Supreme Court ruling.

“The government decided to appeal the ruling as the nature of the decision requires the ultimate court to make a determination,” Mr Pinder said, according to the local daily.

“The government continues to develop citizenship legislative proposals for the Cabinet to consider. Until a decision is made whether to alter the ruling or verify the ruling through legislation, the appeal will continue.”

Last June, the Court of Appeal affirmed a Supreme Court decision that Bahamian men can automatically pass citizenship to their children regardless of whether their child is born out of wedlock to non-Bahamian mothers. The case was brought by Wayne Munroe, the recently appointed National Security Minister.