Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

AS ANTICIPATION mounts about the court's ruling on the appeal in the dual-citizenship case which People's National Party (PNP) candidate Abe Dabdoub has brought against Member of Parliament (MP) Daryl Vaz, The Sunday Gleaner has learnt that a ruling will be handed down within days.

President of the Court of Appeal Justice Seymour Panton, Justice Algernon Smith and Justice Karl Harrison heard the appeal and indications are that the judgement is to be delivered shortly.

Following lengthy submissions last year, the court reserved its decision on December 3.

Since then, political watchers have waited patiently for the decision, which could greatly affect the country's political scene.

Second petition

This is the second time that Dabdoub has brought an election petition in the courts. He was successful in an election petition he filed against Phyllis Mitchell alleging irregularities in the North East St Catherine constituency in the general election of 1997.

At that time, Dabdoub contested the election on a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) ticket and was awarded the seat in June 2001.

Now, he is again trying to enter Parliament through the court, but this time on a PNP ticket.

Dabdoub has expressed optimism that, based on the law and the cases cited to support his contention, he will be victorious.

But Prime Minister Bruce Golding has made it clear that he will not allow anyone who was rejected by the people at the polls to sit in Parliament.

This has led to speculation that if the court awards the seat to Dabdoub, the nation could be called back to a general election.

Vaz won the seat by 944 votes in the 2007 general election. He remains in the House of Representatives because he has been granted a stay of the court ruling, pending the outcome of the appeal.

If the appeal is in Dabdoub's favour, it will reduce the Government's four-seat margin in the House.

Dabdoub had filed an election petition after the general election on September 3, 2007, claiming that Vaz was not entitled to be a member of parliament because he was an American citizen and the holder of a United States passport.

Not entitled to be an MP

Chief Justice Zaila McCalla heard the matter in the Supreme Court and in April last year ruled that although Vaz had inherited citizenship through his mother, who was an American citizen, he had obtained a passport, travelled on it and, therefore, was not entitled to be an MP.

She ordered a by-election in the constituency for which Vaz has prepared by renouncing his American citizenship.

Dabdoub appealed, contending that the chief justice erred in her ruling because he should have been returned as the duly elected MP for the constituency.

Vaz has also appealed the chief justice's ruling and his lawyers argued that if the court did not allow the citizens' votes to be counted, it would deny the implicit right of each citizen of Jamaica to participate in the democratic process.