Honolulu: Some Native Hawaiians think island-born Barack Obama can't be President of the United States because he was born in an independent sovereign nation - the Hawaiian Kingdom.

A few island independence advocates claim that Hawaii legally remains a foreign country today, making Obama and hundreds of thousands of others born in the islands over the past 50 years not "natural born" citizens or eligible to be president under the US Constitution. Their claim won't go far though: Obama was born here in 1961, a year after Hawaii got its star on the flag just short of two years after statehood.

"Obama was born in the Hawaiian kingdom," said Leon Siu, a Native Hawaiian and musician who brought up the issue in a column he wrote on a news website. "Not only was the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom illegal, it was admitted to be illegal by the United States." Siu was referring to the "apology resolution" passed by Congress in 1993 acknowledging wrongdoing in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy 100 years before and recognising the inherent sovereignty of the indigenous islanders over their land.

John McCain has faced more questions than Obama over whether he meets the legal requirement to qualify for America's highest office because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936. Both McCain and Obama appear to qualify for the presidency because they were born in United States lands, said University of Hawaii constitutional law professor Jon Van Dyke.

Source : PTI