The US embassy in Colombo yesterday reaffirmed that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa renounced his US citizenship in April 2019.
According to US Embassy spokesman Nancy T VanHorn, there is no set timeline for when the Federal register publishes names of former citizens and the lag can be several months.
Her comments came in the wake of a debate which is opening up again over the renunciation of US citizenship of incumbent of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after his name appeared in the US Federal register of individuals who have chosen to expatriate last Friday.
"President Gotabaya Rajapaksa renounced his US citizenship in April 2019. As previously noted by Ambassador Alaina B Teplitz, there is no set timeline for when the Federal register publishes names of former citizens and the lag can be several months", said Nancy when contacted by the Daily News.
US ambassador in Colombo Alaina B Teplitz had also said that the Federal Register could often be months behind the recording of one's renunciation of citizenship.
The Constitution of Sri Lanka does not allow dual citizenship holders to run for the office of the President or to be elected as an MP. Several Media outlets had reported yesterday that a group of individuals in the Opposition is prepared to go before court seeking the removal of incumbent President from office and replace the President with UNF Presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa who secured the second place at the last Presidential election based on the argument that the incumbent had not yet renounced US Citizenship by November 2019, when the Presidential Election took place. However, it has now been confirmed that he had in fact done so by November 2019.
(Daily News)