JUNIOR minister Daryl Vaz is to remain member of parliament for the West Portland constituency, pending the outcome of the current dual citizenship case between himself and the People's National Party's (PNP) Abe Dabdoub in the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday, president of the Court of Appeal Justice Seymour Panton granted an extension of the 42-day stay of execution issued by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla following her ruling last month that disqualified Vaz from the House of Representatives and called for a by-election to select a new MP for West Portland.

Vaz was disqualified because of his holding of both Jamaican and United States of America citizenship. He has since renounced his US citizenship.

Following McCalla's ruling on April 11, Dabdoub, who lost the West Portland seat to Vaz in last September's general elections, filed an appeal against the chief justice's decision to order a by-election instead of handing him the seat.

Last Thursday, Vaz, too, filed an appeal against McCalla's decision to disqualify him. Vaz, who maintained that he has accepted the chief justice ruling and was interested in no further court action, said that his filing of an appeal was strategic.

Without the filing of an appeal, Vaz would not have been able to apply for an extension of the stay of execution and would have had to leave parliament yesterday when Justice McCalla's 42-day stay expired.

Should Dabdoub succeed in the Court of Appeal, the country could see a general election before the end of the year, as Prime Minister Bruce Golding had vowed that he would not allow anyone who had not been elected by voters to sit in Parliament.

No date has been set for the appeals to be heard.