# How many countries have a "natural born citizen" requirement for their head of state/head of gov't? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144 "2009-08-12T04:48:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/1 "2009-08-12T04:48:41Z")
Inspired by all the birther threads, I’m curious how many countries, other than the U.S.A., have a requirement that their head of state or head of government be a natural-born citizen? It’s not the case with Canada: - the head of state is Her Majesty, born in the U.K. - there is no citizenship requirement at all for the GovGen. Most of the GovsGen in the past have been British. The current GovGen was born in Haiti, and is a naturalized Canadian. - there is no citizenship requirement at all for the Prime Minister, as a matter of law, since the office is not defined by law. As a matter of constitutional convention, however, the PM must hold a seat in the Commons, which requires Canadian citizenship. However, there’s no “natural born” requirement; in fact, there wasn’t even Canadian citizenship until 1947. So, what’s the situation in other countries? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/2 "2009-08-12T04:54:09Z")
There’s no such requirement in Israel. The current head of state was born in Poland - and is 25 years older than the state. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/3 "2009-08-12T05:03:20Z")
[Here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requirements_for_becoming_a_president) are various country’s presidential requirements. It looks like some that qualify are Afghanistan: > [@](#): > > a presidential candidate must be a citizen of Afghanistan, ethnic Pashtun and of no other nation; Muslim and born of Afghan parents Albania: > [@](#): > > Only an Albanian citizen by birth who has been a resident in Albania for not less than the past 10 years Argentina: > [@](#): > > To be elected President or Vice-President of the Nation it is necessary to have been born in the Argentine territory, or to be the son of a native born citizen if born in a foreign country; and to have the other qualifications required to be elected senator. Mexico: > [@](#): > > The constitution of Mexico requires the candidate to be natural-born citizen of Mexico with at least one parent who is a natural-born citizen of Mexico. and there are a few more there. ---
**Author:** ![mrpayday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@mrpayday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrpayday)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/4 "2009-08-12T06:18:34Z")
son? for Argentina ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/5 "2009-08-12T06:24:16Z")
Mistranslation, **mrpayday**. The word “hijo” means both “son” and “child.” In Spanish, when a word has a male and female form, the male is also the neuter. Spain has no such requirement, if I remember correctly; you need to be a citizen but can be naturalized. I know you can even be a government officer at the local and regional levels without being a citizen (you must be eligible to vote at a specific level in order to be eligible for it, that is, a EU citizen; we’ve had town mayors who were citizens of Germany and the UK at least but haven’t had a foreigner in regional government yet AFAIK). ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/6 "2009-08-12T10:13:26Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > [Here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requirements_for_becoming_a_president) are various country’s presidential requirements. It looks like some that qualify are Afghanistan: Note it says “ethnic Pashtun”. You can be an ethnic Pashtun and not be an Afghan citizen, they are more Pashtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan. Afghanistan does not in certian circumstances require you to be a citizen. Hardly what the OP asked for! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/7 "2009-08-12T12:02:35Z")
> [@](#): > > a presidential candidate must be a citizen of Afghanistan, ethnic Pashtun and of no other nation; Muslim and born of Afghan parents This appears to say that only an ethnic Pashtun can be president of Afghanistan. Is that right? Surely there are a lot of Afghan citizens who are not ethnic Pashtuns, including, I believe, those Northern Alliance guys who fought the war for us. Did the US really allow the Afghan Pashtuns to set up a constitution under which a large proportion of the population are excluded from political power on racial grounds? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/8 "2009-08-12T12:22:38Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Did the US really allow the Afghan Pashtuns to set up a constitution under which a large proportion of the population are excluded from political power on racial grounds? :eek: That is so un-American. Oh, wait… ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/9 "2009-08-12T12:24:19Z")
In South Africa, the President must be a Member of Parliament to be elected (although he stops being an MP once elected). An MP must be a “citizen who is qualified to vote for the National Assembly”, which functionally means any citizen over the age of 18 who is registered to vote. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/10 "2009-08-12T12:34:05Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Note it says “ethnic Pashtun”. You can be an ethnic Pashtun and not be an Afghan citizen, they are more Pashtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan. Afghanistan does not in certian circumstances require you to be a citizen. Hardly what the OP asked for! “ **citizen of Afghanistan** , ethnic Pashtun **and of no other nation** , Muslim and **born of Afghan parents** ” It’s an “and”, not an “or” so it DOES require you to be both a citizen and eligible for _jus sanguinis_ Afghan citizenship and to ditch any other citizenship you may be eligible for. **njtt** : It’s called a power sharing arrangement. Lebanon also has a set-aside of offices for one specific ethnic/religious segment of the population. And BTW, the Mexican requirement doesn’t stop at the Presidency, a number of other high posts in all 3 branches of government as well require natural citizenship – it’s the legacy of Maximillian and Walker and their likes. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/11 "2009-08-12T12:38:22Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > This appears to say that only an ethnic Pashtun can be president of Afghanistan. Is that right? Surely there are a lot of Afghan citizens who are not ethnic Pashtuns, including, I believe, those Northern Alliance guys who fought the war for us. Did the US really allow the Afghan Pashtuns to set up a constitution under which a large proportion of the population are excluded from political power on racial grounds? :eek: The Wikipedia article seems to be in error - [http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/af00000\_.html](http://www.servat.unibe.ch/law/icl/af00000_.html) and [http://www.afghan-web.com/politics/current\_constitution.html#chapterthree](http://www.afghan-web.com/politics/current_constitution.html#chapterthree) both say “Should be citizen of Afghanistan, Muslim and born of Afghan parents, and should not have citizenship of another country.” - I’ll correct the Wikipedia article. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/12 "2009-08-12T14:11:05Z")
Australia is similar to Canada: There are no citizenship requirements for the Queen of Australia or for the Governor-General of Australia. The Prime Minister must be a member of the Parliament, and so must be a citizen of Australia, and may not be a citizen of any other country. The third Prime Minister of Australia (Chris Watson) was born in Chile, his father was a Chilean of German descent, and his mother was a New Zealander – though none of this was known when he held office! Even though presumably he was a British subject (there was no such thing as Australian citizenship at the time), he may also have been a Chilean citizen, and hence not eligible to hold office (if that had been known). ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/13 "2009-08-12T14:29:36Z")
Well obviously in the UK, the qualifications to be Head of State are pretty tight - there’s only one set of parents you can have if you want the top job. But to become Prime Minister, you have to be an MP (or a peer). And to become an MP you must be a British **or Commonwealth** citizen. So, given that the Commonwealth consists of 53 countries, it’s quite possible, should he choose to run, for the King of Tonga to become Prime Minister of the UK, although there’s a complicated set of disqualification criteria that he may fall foul of if his business interests are in conflict with his work as PM. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/14 "2009-08-12T15:06:20Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Well obviously in the UK, the qualifications to be Head of State are pretty tight - there’s only one set of parents you can have if you want the top job. However, there have been British monarchs who were not born in Britain. And if you look far enough down the current line of succession there are members of various European royal families. If there were an absolute massacre at Ascot one year, we could end up with King Harald of Norway as our head of state. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/15 "2009-08-12T15:51:29Z")
The “must not be a citizen of another country” requirement is an interesting one, as it implies a reliance on a determination made by a foreign nation. It raises a couple of questions in my mind: [ol] [li]How easy is it to renounce citizenship in the foreign country? I didn’t think all countries even had a mechanism for doing this. What if it is a failed state?[/li][li]Could a foreign state declare you a citizen to thwart your candidacy? It isn’t clear how the jurisdiction works here - there isn’t anything stopping them from declaring anyone they want a citizen - but what is the mechanism for determining if you recognize that claim?[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/16 "2009-08-12T16:54:07Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > That is so un-American. Oh, wait… No one is excluded from political power on racial grounds in the USA. You are excluded from being Prez if you are not born here, but you can be any race or ethnicity. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/17 "2009-08-12T17:06:03Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > The “must not be a citizen of another country” requirement is an interesting one, as it implies a reliance on a determination made by a foreign nation. The actual wording of the Australian Constitution is: > [@](#): > > 1. Any person who - > > shall be incapable of being chosen or of sitting as a senator or a member of the House of Representatives. Yes, the status of being “a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power” is determined by foreign law, and some countries may make it difficult or impossible to renounce citizenship. The section has only been tested with respect to a senator-elect who was a dual Australian/British citizen ([Sue v Hill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_v_Hill)). Senator-elect Heather Hill only renounced her UK citizenship after she had been elected to the Senate (she had been naturalised as an Australian citizen earlier the same year), and was declared by the High Court ineligible to stand for the Senate. Interestingly, this meant that in an act of the U.K. Parliament (the origin of the Australian Constitution), “foreign power” included the United Kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/18 "2009-08-12T19:33:45Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Yes, the status of being “a subject or a citizen or entitled to the rights or privileges of a subject or citizen of a foreign power” is determined by foreign law, and some countries may make it difficult or impossible to renounce citizenship. So does that mean that evil dictators of small tinpot countries in essence have veto powers over Australian senate or house candidates? “Hmm, John Smith has Australian Prime Minister ambitions, and he hates my guts. Lets declare him a citizen of our nation to prevent that!” I have a hard time imagining if this was tried in the real world that the response would be anything but “up yours!”, but the law seems to imply it would be a valid strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/19 "2009-08-12T19:49:46Z")
Huh. India: > [@](#): > > The person should be at least 35 years of age, a citizen of India and should not hold an office of profit under the government (except current Vice President, Governor or Minister of a State. The candidate must not have any criminal procedures against him or her. Neat-o link. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144/20 "2009-08-12T20:14:31Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > There’s no such requirement in Israel. The current head of state was born in Poland - and is 25 years older than the state. The fourth Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, was born in Kiev, in the Ukraine. She spent her early life in Milwaukee, where her family moved, before joining a kibbutz in Palestine in 1921. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-countries-have-a-natural-born-citizen-requirement-for-their-head-of-state-head-of-govt/506144.md?page=2)