( L - R ) Dabdoub, Vaz

People's National Party candidate Abe Dabdoub is going full speed ahead in his bid to be declared member of parliament for West Portland through the courts.

Yesterday, Dabdoub filed an appeal against Chief Justice Zaila McCalla's April 11 ruling that a by-election be held in the constituency to determine the next MP.

The Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Daryl Vaz was ousted after Dabdoub rushed to the courts immediately after losing the September 3, 2007 general election, challenging that Vaz was ineligible to sit in Parliament because he had pledged allegiance to a foreign power.

Let democracy prevail

Dabdoub filed his appeal a day after Vaz, whose stay in Parliament ends next week, used his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in Parliament to challenge PNP leader Portia Simpson Miller to let democracy prevail. Vaz said a court decision should not determine who represents the people of West Portland.

He said founding member of the People's National Party (PNP) Norman Washington Manley and its former president Michael Manley would have wanted the party to settle the matter at the polls.

"What is required is strong decisive leadership so that the people can quickly decide," Vaz said.

The MP said he had renounced his United States citizenship as he displayed his "certificate of loss of nationality" from the government of the United States, effective May 2.

Vaz was ousted from Parliament after the chief justice upheld Dabdoub's claim that, under the Constitution, Vaz was not entitled to be an MP because he was an American citizen and had pledged allegiance to a foreign power.

A 42-day stay of her order was granted, which allows Vaz to remain in Parliament.

In his grounds of appeal, Dabdoub said the chief justice erred as a matter of fact and law when she did not order his return as the duly elected member of Parliament.

He is seeking a stay of execution of the judgment until his appeal has been heard.