Garth Rattray

Although some politicians have earned my respect, I have no preference for any political party because politics is a very serious, dangerous, dirty and potentially deadly game that affects all of us in some way. I find the recent events surrounding the matter of foreign allegiance to be extremely interesting.

From my understanding, as long as (prior to the event) political candidate 'A' officially and publicly raises valid objections regarding the (constitutional) unfitness of candidate 'B' to run for election, should candidate 'B' win the seat but prove to have been an illegitimate candidate from the very outset, he/she is summarily disqualified and the 'runner-up' (candidate 'A') automatically becomes the winner of that seat. The default winner should not be forced to rerun the race through a by-election.

When I heard that Daryl Vaz had signed documents to renew his United States passport and that doing so was a form of swearing allegiance (to the US), I realised that he would lose his seat. I expected Chief Justice Zaila McCalla to disqualify him, but I was shocked when she ordered a by-election. The two were inconsistent and appears to be her attempt at a compromise.

Ineligibility

Now, with the emergence of four other sitting JLP parliamentarians who may lose their seats on the same grounds of constitutional ineligibility, it appears that the People's National Party (PNP) wasn't 'Phinn-ished' after all. Or are they? It has been strongly rumoured that quite a few of them were also US citizens, but (some) hurriedly renounced their foreign citizenship before the general election. However, even if that rumour has some basis in fact, and even if the renouncement officially took effect after the election date, if no one mounted a challenge before the contest, then (according to my understanding), that would warrant a by-election and not disqualification.

If the slim Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) parliamentary majority is threatened by uncovered constitutional breaches, a power shift will be thwarted simply because politics is a game in which both sides will do anything to win and the ruling party holds the handle. In spite of the expected cost in time, money and lives, the JLP's remedy for the current political conundrum is to call an early general election and move the decision of who sits in parliament from out of the hands of our judges and into the hands of the people. Hopefully, they'll consider constitutional lawyer, Bert Samuels's very wise suggestion of negotiated by-elections where relevant. It is ironic that it was the 'chief servant' who wanted to have fixed general election dates and now he wants an early general election to stay in power.

Naturalised Americans

And so, here we are, an entire nation sitting in political limbo. On the one hand, some assert that parliamentarians should be wholly and solely Jamaican - they should throw in their lot with those who they represent. But, on the other hand, the Constitution allows for Commonwealth citizens from any country (but resident here), to vie for and possibly win a seat in our Parliament. So, although almost every Jamaican has a relative who is a naturalised American and although (subsequently) many Jamaicans are themselves naturalised Americans, our antiquated Constitution denies them the opportunity to serve because the US is not part of the British Commonwealth.

Be that as it may, don't expect a little thing like our constitution to send any political party quietly into the night. after all, this is a game and it's far from over.