Grenada: Prime Minister Mitchell denies receiving funds for election campaign via Citizenship By Investment initiative

Grenada’s Prime Minister Keith Mitchell has denied media reports that his ruling New National Party (NNP) had received campaign financing from the Grenada Sustainable Aquaculture (GSA), a failed Citizenship By Investment (CBI) programme.

The Qatar-based news and TV channel, Al Jazeera, in a 1-hour programme aired across the region earlier this week, alleged that Caribbean countries with CBI programmes were also selling diplomatic passports to individuals who make significant financial contribution to political parties.

The television station named Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent & the Grenadines and among the countries that had benefited from the sale of foreign diplomatic passports.

Under the CBI, Caribbean countries provide citizenship to foreign investors who make a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of these island-nations.

In the television programme, a man identified as Leo Ford is seen and heard saying that the prime minister requested funds for the 2018 general election campaign.

But Mitchell told reporters that the Al Jazeera television programme alleging that his NNP, which won all the seats in the 2018 general elections here, “is totally false.”

“The NNP did not receive a single cent from these people. I have asked my fund-raising people and they did not even know these people”, said Mitchell.

Last year, the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Committee announced it had “suspended the acceptance of applications in respect of the approved project, Grenada Sustainable Aquaculture, until further notice.” -(CMC)