NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Former Health Minister Renward Wells says it would be undemocratic of the Davis administration to equalize citizenship rights between men and women by amending the Bahamas Nationality Act.
Attorney General Ryan Pinder has said the law will be amended to achieve the change this summer.
In 2002 and 2016, Bahamians rejected referendums that sought to amend the constitution to allow equalize citizenship opportunities between men and women.
“I believe in democracy,” Wells said in a recent interview.
“If you want to go back on the citizenship issue, you need to go back to the people who said no.”
“You ought not to go against the will of the people. if you put it to a vote and the people said no, it ought to stay there again.”
In 2017, former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis announced his administration’s own plan to amend the Bahamas Nationality Act to make citizenship changes. However, the administration never followed through on its pledge.
The planned changes have the backing of former prime ministers Hubert Ingraham and Perry Christie.
In March, Ingraham told the press he is convinced the Davis administration will criminalize marital rape and solve gender inequality issues pertaining to Bahamian citizenship.
“I think Prime Minister Davis will deliver on that and I think he will deliver on a couple other things in connection with gender equality,” he said.
“You know, we tried the hard way. I wanted to make an amendment to the laws that couldn’t be changed by another Parliament. It had to go through another referendum, that’s what I wanted to do. I didn’t just want to change the law and have somebody come along and change it back. That’s why I went the hard way.
Ingraham said: “Well, The Bahamas having gone the hard way twice, I think Prime Minister Davis will sensibly take the easier way and just do it by legislation and I think he will be successful.”
Ingraham said changes to ordinary legislation can bring about gender equality.
“My only concern was when I did it by referendum, I didn’t want it to be capable of being changed again by another government just because they came to office. But in terms of the law, the Parliament has the authority to be able to do that. They have the authority to grant citizenship.”
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