Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Ousted West Portland Member of Parliament Daryl Vaz (right) leaves the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston yesterday in the company of wife Ann-Marie and Jamaica Labour Party deputy leader Dr Horace Chang (left). The court declared that Vaz, who was elected on September 3, 2007, is not qualified to sit in the House of Representatives as stipulated by the Constitution. There is, however, a 42-day stay of the judgment and he will remain MP until then. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

DARYL VAZ has vowed that he will be the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) candidate for Western Portland if he fails in his bid to get yesterday's judgment from Chief Justice Zaila McCalla overruled and if a by-election is called in the constituency.

In a landmark ruling in the Supreme Court, McCalla said Vaz was not qualified to be a member of parliament by way of his United States citizenship and ordered a by-election in the constituency.

Abe Dabdoub, the defeated People's National Party (PNP) candidate who had brought an election petition against Vaz, will also be the PNP's standard bearer if he fails to get the seat on appeal against the by-election ruling.

run again

"If there is a by-election, Comrade Dabdoub would run again," PNP General Secretary Peter Bunting told The Gleaner yesterday evening.

Bunting also said the ruling confirmed the action of the PNP, which was intended to uphold the Constitution of Jamaica.

Dabdoub went to court after the September 3, 2007 general election, claiming that Vaz was in contravention of the Constitution as, by his own act, he had pledged allegiance to the US. Dabdoub was instead seeking to be returned as the duly elected MP.

Yesterday, the chief justice ruled that Dabdoub was not entitled to be returned as the member of parliament for West Portland. The judge said Dabdoub's notices that Vaz was disqualified from being elected because he was a US citizen, were not clear and definite.

"I intend to appeal the ruling on the basis that the chief justice has erred in law in assessing the effect of the notice and its meaning in law," Dabdoub said in a release issued by his party after the ruling.

42-day stay

Vaz has been granted a 42-day stay of the chief justice's ruling. The stay means he will remain in Parliament for the next 42 days.

Dabdoub has also been granted a 42-day stay of the ruling, meaning that there cannot be a by-election during that time.

Attorney-at-law Ransford Braham, who represents Vaz, has indicated that there will be an appeal against the chief justice's ruling.

Attorneys-at-law Gayle Nelson and Jalil Dabdoub represented Abe Dabdoub.

Dabdoub, had raised the issue of Vaz's dual citizenship, based on Section 40 (2) of the Jamaican Constitution.

Vaz said he was born in Jamaica but his mother, who was a US citizen, registered his birth at the US Embassy in Jamaica and his name was added to her passport. He admitted that he applied for a US passport as an adult and travelled on it. When the hearing began in December, Vaz was still the holder of an American passport and had recently travelled on it.

"I hold further that by his positive acts of renewing and travelling on his United States passport, the first respondent (Vaz) has by virtue of his own act, acknowledged his allegiance, obedience or adherence to the United States of America," the chief justice said in her ruling yesterday.

The chief justice also said that on Nomination Day (August 7 last year), Vaz was not qualified to be elected to the House of Representatives. She then declared his nomination invalid, null and void and of no legal effect.

When the judgment came yesterday, JLP Area Council 2 chairman, James Robertson, who was also at court, was swift in his response. "We are going to send Vaz out there and he will beat Dabdoub by 3,000," he predicted.

Meanwhile, Vaz says he would renounce his citizenship if there were to be a by-election.

"I have a responsibility to the people who elected me and I have a desire to continue to represent them," he said.