Ticlo to face disqualification threat for being Portuguese citizen
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 02 January 2013 12:04 IST
Lawyer-turned-politician Radharao Gracias is planning to file a complaint before the Governor of Goa by next week, demanding disqualification of Aldona’s Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Glenn Ticlo.
He is believed to have been having Portuguese citizenship.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar however claims that mere registration of birth in Portugal cannot make anybody Portuguese citizen.
Similar kind of petition has also been filed against Benaulim MLA Caitu Silva by his election opponent Valanka Alemao.
Caitu however only his birth registered in Portugal.
Documents circulating among the media however indicate that Ticlo has not only registered his birth in Portugal in 2009, but has also been conferred with Portuguese citizenship.
According to him, Ticlo is a Portuguese national and cannot contest election in India.
ccording to constitutional expert Advocate Cleofato Almeida Coutinho, Portugal has no separate procedure to confer citizenship. Once the birth is registered in Portugal as a Portuguese citizen he automatically becomes Portuguese national.
Almeida thus feels that Ticlo is a strong case for his disqualification since foreign national cannot contest election in India.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar however refuses to buy this argument.
According to him, mere registration of birth in Portugal cannot make anybody Portuguese national.
He even claims that the document does not have Glenn Ticlo’s name on it. The document circulated among media however carries Ticlo’s name.
Parrikar also claims that Portugal has a separate procedure and they grant citizenship only after they swear in before the concerned authorities.
But Adv Almeida says Ticlo has already been conferred with Portuguese citizenship, if the documents are to be believed. In that case, Ticlo automatically ceases to be Indian citizen.
Though the complaint in this regard is made before the Governor, the decision in this regard needs to be taken by the Election Commission of India, once Governor forwards it them.
Adv Gracias plans to file the official complaint before the Governor by Monday.
