A Court of Appeal ruling last Friday, cleared the way for Peoples National Party (PNP) candidate, Phyllis Mitchell, to ask the court to unseat North East St. Catherine Member of Parliament (MP), Gregory Mair, and other party figures to go after four of Mairs colleagues who are said to holding dual citizenship.

Members of Parliament Shahine Robinson, Gregory Mair, Michael Stern and Laurie Broderick are reportedly in the same boat as their colleague Daryl Vaz, who was declared ineligible to serve in Parliament after Chief Justice Zalia McCalla ruled that he was in breach of the Constitution because he was a holder of US citizenship. 

The Court of Appeal on Friday reinstated an election petition, which had been struck out by the Supreme Court last October.  Lawyers representing Mair argued at the court hearing that documents that had been served on their client during a sitting of Parliament had been improperly served.  But the Appeal Court found that the documents, which were also sent by registered mail, were properly served. 

Lawyers representing defeated PNP candidate, Phyllis Mitchell, who is seeking to have Mair, who is said to be a Venezuelan citizen, disqualified from sitting in Parliament, served the petition documents.  The latest court ruling has cleared the way for cases seeking to removed Mair and his other colleagues to be heard in the courts.

Clear precedent
Last week, both Vaz and his opposition counterpart, Abe Dabdoub, filed appeals challenging the April 11 ruling by the Chief Justice.  Dabdoub, who filed an election petition seeking to unseat Vaz, is asking the Appeal Court to overturn Justice MaCallas decision that a by-election should be held to determine the Member of Parliament for the West Portland constituency.  Within 24 hours after Dabdoubs filing, lawyers representing Vaz followed suit and filed a suit seeking to overturn the ruling, which disqualified him as a Member of Parliament.

Legal pundits argue that the ruling against Vaz had set a clear precedent for the removal of all members of Parliament with dual citizenship, who are not Commonwealth citizens.

Shahine Robinson, who is serving her second term as MP for North East St Ann, reportedly became a US citizen during her second term.

Reports indicate that Michael Stern, who flogged the PNPs candidate, former junior minister Richard Azan, in North West Clarendon, served in the US army for over five years.

And Laurie Broderick, a son of late PNP stalwart, Percy Broderick Sr., who defeated former Health minister, Horace Dalley, in North Clarendon, is also reportedly a US citizen.   

Speculations
Fridays ruling and Dabdoubs appeal have intensified speculations of elections this year, against the background of Prime Minister Bruce Goldings pronouncement that he would not allow anyone who lost at the polls, to sit in Parliament as a result of legal technicalities.

From all indications, the government, facing the likely erosion of its slim four-seat majority in Parliament, is heading for the polls.  But the opposition PNP, still smarting from the September 3, 2007 defeat by the JLP does not welcome indications of an early poll. 

The PNP, preparing for its 70th birthday in September, could also see a challenge to its top leadership, as vice president and former security minister, Dr. Peter Phillips, has been mobilising for a political showdown with party leader, Portia Simpson Miller.  Simpson Miller, who defeated Phillips in the four-candidate runoff for party leader in February 2006, to become Jamaicas first female Prime Minister, is facing what party insiders say, will be a stiff challenge at the next annual conference.

Apart from the political challenges, the party is broke and several candidates are planning to hang up their political gloves, creating vacancies, which could prove hard to fill if an election is called shortly.