The Jamaica Council of Churches (JCC) is hailing the recent decision by the Court of Appeal to uphold the ruling of the chief justice in the west Portland dual-citizenship case brought against the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Daryl Vaz by People's National Party's (PNP) Abe Dabdoub, following his election to parliament in 2007.

In a landmark ruling last year, Chief Justice Zaila McCalla ruled that Vaz, by virtue of his own act, had sworn allegiance to a foreign power, and ruled that a by-election be held instead of allowing the seat to go automatically to Dabdoub.

Maturing nature

"We are of the view that the ruling is another indication of the stable and maturing nature of Jamaica's democracy of which we are proud," the JCC said in a release to the press yesterday.

But it adds: "Having said that, we look forward to the written judgement from the learned judges in the not-too-distant future."

Vaz and the PNP's new candidate, Kenneth Rowe, were nominated on Friday to contest the by-election to be held on Monday, March 23.

The JCC appealed to both candidates to abide by the political code of conduct during their campaigning in the constituency and to put Jamaica first.

They also advised both candidates to be modest in their electioneering activities, given the economic crisis facing the country.

A travesty

"It would be simply a travesty, worthy of abhorrence, were there to be any act of extravagance in the name of vote-getting. We cannot overemphasise our appeal to the candidates to demonstrate the requisite sensitivity in these trying times, by avoiding unnecessary spending in pursuit of political mileage," the council underscored.