An independent Australian senator, who is British by descent, has become the eighth lawmaker to leave Parliament in recent months over a 116-year-old constitutional ban on dual nationals running for office that threatens to bring down the government.
Jacqui Lambie tearfully resigned on Tuesday, a day after the Senate set a Dec. 1 deadline for Australia-born senators to provide documented evidence that they had not inherited the citizenship of an immigrant parent or grandparent.
The conservative coalition could lose two seats in by-elections next month after John Alexander resigned from Parliament last week because he was likely British.
Kristina Keneally, a Las Vegas-born former New South Wales state premier, has announced she will run for Alexander’s seat, having renounced her U.S. citizenship.
