Vaz

Jamaica Labour Party Member of Parliament, Daryl Vaz, is expected to testify today at the hearing of the election petition in the Supreme Court.

Vaz is the respondent in the petition which People's National Party candidate Abe Dabdoub has brought, contending that Vaz is an American citizen and is not entitled to be an MP.

Yesterday, Director of Elections Danville Walker, who Vaz called as a witness, completed his evidence under cross-examination.

Attorney-at-law John Vassell, from the law firm DunnCox, turned up in court yesterday and announced that he was there to represent the Electoral Office. He said he was also there to see that Walker was not asked any undue or irrelevant questions or anything that would cause him embarrassment.

Lawyers doing a good job

Chief Justice Zaila McCalla remarked that Vaz's lawyer Ransford Braham and government lawyer Nicole Foster-Pusey were already there doing a good job. The judge told Vassell that he could sit in the matter but he could not intervene.

Mr. Braham is to inform the court today when American expert lawyer George Crimarco will be available to return to court for further cross-examination.

Walker was cross-examined yesterday about a notice he received about Vaz's disqualification in relation to allegiance to a foreign power. Walker said he agreed that, as director of elections, his duties did not include making statements on the law.

Dabdoub is contending that because Vaz has U.S. citizenship, he is in breach of the Constitution of Jamaica and is not entitled to be a MP because he has pledged allegiance to a foreign power.