| Can Jamaica handle another general election so soon? |
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| Written by Carmilita Jamieson | |
| Friday, 23 May 2008 | |
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The political air in
With the ongoing dual citizenship rigmarole making headways in favour of the People’s National Party (PNP), it seems the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who took office only in September last in a very close 32-28 victory, might be in for a rude awakening. The court challenges against Dual citizenship were launched by the PNP, who pointed out that constitutionally; legislators are not permitted to have dual citizenships. According to reports in the Jamaica Observer, the JLP government has already faced some harsh setbacks from the current situation, with the first court challenge brought by the PNP’s Abe Dabdoub against JLP MP Daryl Vaz seeking to have Vaz disqualified on the grounds that he held Jamaican and United States citizenship,. The court has since disqualified Vaz and ruled that a by-election be held for the
The most recent was a ruling on Friday last by the Court of Appeal. The appeal gave the opposition’s Phyllis Mitchell the “go ahead” to seek a disqualification of the JLP’s Gregory Mair as the MP for North East St Catherine. The rulings are expected to be the gateway to further challenges against three other MP’s in the JLP Government who also hold US citizenships. They are Michael Stern, Laurie Broderick and Shahine Robinson. Interestingly, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Bruce Golding said he will not allow anyone not elected by the people to sit in the House. However, it will be better if both sides can sit down and discuss how they will deal with the situation. According to a Jamaican constitutional lawyer, it would be wise for those MP’s with dual citizenships to renounce their foreign citizenships, an initiative that will clear them to compete in by-elections if it comes to that. The dual-citizenship holders in parliament were also advised to declare their status publicly, to be in accordance with their pledge to uphold the country’s constitution. The question is should the
In our “globalised” world where more persons are having dual citizenships for several legitimate reasons, it might be worth pondering. Comments (0)
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