The People’s National Party (PNP), saying that it was guided by legal advice, Tuesday cancelled a hurriedly called press conference at its headquarters where the party was expected to disclose its course of action against Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidates alleged to possess dual citizenship.

Some 20 minutes after the scheduled start of the news conference, party chairman Robert Pickersgill and vice-president Angela Brown-Burke apologised to journalists who had responded to the PNP’s invitation.

“The chairman. has apologised most sincerely for having brought you here, appreciating that you have responded at such short notice, and that at this point we are saying to you that we are not going to go forward with the discussion that we had planned to have,” Brown-Burke announced.

She said the party had sought legal advice on how to approach the dual citizenship issue and was advised against discussing it in a public forum with the media.

“The best advice we have received, with which we agreed, says to us that since the matter is gonna be sub judice we should not enter into that discussion,” she continued.

The party representatives suggested that a writ had been filed with the Supreme Court but declined to divulge details as to who started the process.

Checks by the Observer Tuesday to ascertain who filed the documents ended in a virtual brickwall as the court’s registry had two entries titled “Private”, thus restricting them from public access.

With less than a week to go before general elections on September 3, it is unlikely that the matter will be resolved before the persons alleged to hold dual citizenship contest the polls. The matter may, however, go back to court after the elections as an election petition, at which point the polls would have to be retaken, providing that the challenged candidate had won.

A JLP spokesperson who asked not to be named suggested that the PNP’s cancellation of the press conference was to save itself from embarrassment. “They realise that they would have been caused great embarrassment because they are going down the wrong road,” he said, suggesting that members of the PNP also hold dual citizenship.

On Tuesday, the PNP confirmed that two of its candidates were “affected” but said they had taken the appropriate steps to renounce ties to the foreign country.

In recent weeks, both major political parties have been pointing fingers at each other, alleging that some parliamentary hopefuls are citizens both of Jamaica and the United States.

Pickersgill made it clear, however, that the concern was not merely about dual citizenship.

“It’s about swearing allegiance to a foreign country,” he said.

According to the Jamaican constitution, “no person shall be qualified to be appointed as a senator or elected as a member of the House of Representatives who is, by virtue of his own act, under any acknowledgment of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state”.

On Tuesday, when journalists asked whether the aborted news conference was an indication of disorganisation in the PNP, Pickersgill said, “Where the PNP is concerned, we are at one as to the matters that affect the party”.

Brown-Burke added: “I don’t want anybody to leave here with that misunderstanding that the party is not organised. We called a conference and we brought you here and inasmuch as that was an error based on the advice that we’re now given, we have to apologise.”