Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

The appeal which People's National Party candidate Abe Dabdoub has filed against the ruling in his dual citizenship case against Daryl Vaz is set for hearing on November 24.

The date was set yesterday at a case-management conference, presided over by Justice Dennis Morrison. The judge ordered that all the relevant documents in the appeal must be filed by October 10.

Dabdoub is appealing against a ruling by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla that there must be a by-election in the West Portland constituency to determine the next member of parliament.

He is contending that he should be returned as the duly elected member of parliament for the constituency.

Ousted

The Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Vaz was ousted as MP after the chief justice ruled that he was ineligible to sit in Parliament because he had pledged allegiance to a foreign power.

Dabdoub had filed an election petition, after the September 3 general election last year, contending that, under the Constitution, Vaz was not entitled to be an MP because he was an American citizen.

Vaz will remain as MP until the appeal has been heard and determined because the Court of Appeal has granted him a stay of execution in the matter. Following the chief justice's ruling this year, Vaz renounced his American citizenship.

He has also filed an appeal against the chief justice's ruling but Dabdoub has filed an application to strike out the appeal. Dabdoub claims the appeal is frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the process of the court. The application is set for hearing on September 22.

Dabdoub has requested the chief justice's notes of evidence in the case to assist him in his appeal, but they have not yet been completed.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com