Dabdoub

People's National Party candidate Abe Dabdoub is asking the Court of Appeal to give a strict interpretation of the relevant section of the Jamaican Constitution which deals with dual citizenship.

Attorney-at-law Jalil Dabdoub, who is representing Abe Dabdoub, made submissions on Friday in the dual-citizenship case, which Abe Dabdoub had brought against Member of Parliament for West Portland Daryl Vaz.

Abe Dabdoub, the appellant, is contending that Chief Justice Zaila McCalla was correct when she found in May this year that Vaz was not entitled to be a member of the House of Representatives because he was the holder of a United States (US) passport and travelled on it and, as such, had pledged allegiance to a foreign power, which was in breach of the Jamaican Constitution.

Error by chief justice

He is in agreement with the chief justice's ruling, which ousted Vaz from Parliament, but Abe Dabdoub is contending that the chief justice erred when she ordered a by-election in the West Portland constituency. Abe Dabdoub is asking the court to set aside the chief justice's ruling and order that he should be returned as the duly elected candidate for the constituency in the general elections on September 3, last year.

Jalil Dabdoub submitted that Vaz elected to keep his status as an American citizen. He said Vaz maintained the status and declared to the world when he travelled on his US passport, that he was a person owing and under an acknowledgement of allegiance to the US. He said Vaz was disqualified by virtue of his foreign citizenship and by his voluntary declaration of such an allegiance.

He asked the court to expand the chief justice's ruling. He said she was correct in her ruling in relation to the US passport, but she should have gone further to say that Vaz, by his own act, had remained under an allegiance to a foreign power. He then asked the court to give a strict interpretation of the relevant sections of the Constitution.

The hearing continues today.