You were on a leave of absence as a legislator, but not a citizen.
Pursuant to Citizenship Act 4(2), leaves of absence as a citizen are “subject to discretionary approval from the Citizenship Committee before the voting period for each election.” It follows that:
- You requested approval of a leave of absence from the Chair of the Assembly. As noted in the first post of this topic, that is distinct from requesting a leave of absence from the Citizenship Committee.
- You requested a leave of absence after the voting period had already begun for the October 2023 Chair of the Assembly election. As such, it was not possible in any case for the Citizenship Committee to approve your leave of absence before the voting period of the election.
I want to make clear that we understand that this is a new system and that it may be confusing. As we stated when this issue came up a few days ago, we will absolutely take the legislator leave of absence into account when it comes to our discretionary power to grant leniency.