Court clears way for NE St Ann poll
Published:Friday | December 3, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
The courts have paved the way for nominations to take place today in the North East St Ann constituency and for a by-election to be held on December 20.
Former Member of Parliament Shahine Robinson is expected to be nominated as the Jamaica Labour Party's candidate.
Meanwhile, the People's National Party (PNP) said last night that it would not contest the election.
"Our intention has always been that the integrity of the membership of Parliament should be beyond question. We feel confident that the point has been well and truly made and that our actions have been vindicated," the PNP said in a release.
Yesterday, president of the Court of Appeal, Seymour Panton, turned down an application by elector Manley Bowen for an injunction to stop the by-election.
Later in the day, Supreme Court judge Ingrid Mangatal refused an application for leave to go to the Judicial Review Court to quash Prime Minister Bruce Golding's decision to call a by-election. Last Friday, the prime minister announced the date for the by-election and Bowen applied to the Court of Appeal for an injunction to bar him from going ahead with the election until the appeal against a Supreme Court ruling has been heard and determined. The appeal is set for hearing on March 21.
The constituency has been without a member of parliament since September when Supreme Court judge Roy Jones declared the seat vacant. It was done after Robinson, the then MP, filed a notice of intention that she was not opposing the election petition which Bowen had brought against her.
Bowen in his bid to get an injunction from the Court of Appeal had also sought an order to restrain Robinson from being nominated to run in the by-election unless she produced to the returning officer proof of renunciation of her US citizenship.
After the September 3, 2007 general election, Bowen filed an election petition contending that Robinson had dual citizenship when she was nominated to run in the constituency.
Bowen took the issue to the Court of Appeal after the seat was declared vacant. He is contending that his lawyers, Abe Dabdoub and Raymond Clough, were not given an opportunity to argue that the seat should go to the People's National Party candidate Oswest Senior Smith. Bowen was granted a stay of execution which barred the calling of a by-election but, on November 24, Court of Appeal judge Dennis Morrison lifted the stay.
Panton, in refusing to grant an injunction described Bowen's application as wholly misconceived and without merit.