BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ALLEGATIONS of ineligibility against the People’s Action Movement’s (PAM) elected representative in Constituency Number Eight, Eugene Hamilton, continue to be made as election petitions have been carried before the court by his Labour Party counterpart, Cedric Liburd.
In a recent statement issued through the Communications Office of the Prime Minister (CUOPM), Liburd challenged the election of Hamilton on the grounds that he was “under an acknowledgement of allegiance and or obedience and or adherence to a foreign state or power namely the United States of America”, thus disqualifying him from being nominated for general elections.
Similar statements had been made previously, but in the CUOPM release Liburd specified the allegations, contending that as an adult Hamilton “applied for, accepted and travelled on foreign travel documents or papers and a passport issued by the Government of the United States”.
The CUOPM report reads, “Liburd claims that Mr. Hamilton travelled from the Federation to the United States to Miami and Puerto Rico several times in 2008 and 2009 using travel documents with numbers A055211598 and 00158215 which were not issued by the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis, but by a foreign power or State, namely the United States of America. He also travels on a passport BP01812 issued by the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.”
Hamilton has maintained that he does not own any passport issued by any foreign power or state.
“If he [Liburd] is saying that a passport has been issued to me by a foreign power or state, then that is absolutely untrue. I have one passport; I do not have and have never had any passport issued by any foreign power or state,” Hamilton said in his defence.
He further argued that he was born in St. Kitts and lived here all his life, emphasizing that during that time, he has had three passports: one that has expired, one that was stamped out and one currently in use. Hamilton claimed that the only passports he has used were issued by the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis.
When asked to give a direct response to the numbers quoted by Liburd in the CUOPM report, Hamilton said, “I do not recognize all the numbers that they have quoted.
“If they are claiming I have a foreign passport, tell them to say when I got it, where I got and when it was issued. And, if they are claiming that I swore an allegiance [to a foreign power], they must say when and where it happened,” he noted.
Similar action has been brought against Hamilton’s co-deputy Shawn Richards by his Labour Party counterpart in Constituency Number Five, Dr. Norgen Wilson. A date for these court hearings is yet to be made known.
