Loop News- British Virgin Islands Parliamentarians passed the Immigration and Passport Validation (Amendment) Bill 2023 yesterday to 688 persons, who were granted belonger status but didn’t meet the legal requirements, to vote in next week’s General Election.
The amendments were passed during an emergency sitting of the House of Assembly that was called by Governor John Rankin after an audit into the Fast Track Residency and Belongership Program found that the persons were granted Belonger status when they did not meet some legal requirements.
At a media conference last week, Rankin said: “For most of those, the specific error was that they were granted their Residency and Belongership certificates simultaneously, whereas on a proper reading of the law they should have held their certificate of residency for 12 months before their application for Belonger status was made.”
The amendments received the unanimous support of the eight Members of Parliament, who were present in the House of Assembly last evening.
Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley, Deputy House Speaker and Education Minister Sharie deCastro recused themselves from the debate since their spouses benefitted from the fast-track program.
Deputy Premier Kye Rymer defended his three colleagues against rumors that their spouses were given preferential treatment.
“It seems some will spare no effort in doing so, even if it means hurting the innocent loved ones of persons even in this House,” Rymer stated. “They have gone so far as to falsely spread rumors that the spouses of certain Honourable members who applied to the Fast Track program did not qualify for Belonger status, but that it was still granted to them. This is absolutely not so.”
He also defended the governor’s decision to recall the house of assembly saying that the move was legal and it is not something new as the British Parliament has been recalled over 30 times in the past.
In wrapping up yesterday’s emergency sitting, Wheatley said Virgin Islands should not be ashamed about the historic recall.
“When you have challenges, you seek to address challenges, and that takes courage. It was indeed a historic sitting and persons in the room can say that of course, they were a part of that and there will be some institutional memory there,” he said.
 Bill 2023 yesterday to 688 persons,){kind=link}