WEST Portlanders will be going to the polls in March to select a member of parliament following the Court of Appeal’s refusal yesterday to hand over the seat to People’s National Party (PNP) candidate Abe Dabdoub who had waged a long and intricate legal battle to unseat the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Daryl Vaz.

Just over an hour after the ruling, Prime Mister Bruce Golding set a March 23 date for a by-election to be held, with Nomination Day scheduled for next Friday.

Dabdoub had asked justices Seymour Panton, Algernon Smith and Karl Harrison to disqualify Vaz on the ground that Vaz held US citizenship and hand him (Dabdoub) the West Portland seat.

The justices, however, upheld the April 11, 2008 ruling of Chief Justice Zaila McCalla that a by-election be held upon Vaz’s disqualification.

Vaz’s appeal against McCalla’s decision to disqualify him from Gordon House was also dismissed.

“The certification by the learned Chief Justice to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and her order for the holding of a by-election in the constituency of West Portland are affirmed,” said Justice Panton, the appellate court president.

The appellate court will, at a later date, give written reasons for its ruling.

The court also ruled that Dabdoub did not have to stand the cost of the Supreme Court trial. No order was made as to cost in the appeals.

Following the ruling, Vaz, who last year renounced his US citizenship to contest the by-election, said he was relieved that the court did not hand over the seat to Dabdoub.

Said Vaz, his wife by his side: “Relief! Relief! Relief! Relief! I’m waiting now to get the election over with now that the court case is over. The weight of the country and the party has been on my shoulders.”

Apart from his wife, Vaz also had the support of Labour Party officials who turned out at the court in numbers. Among them were general secretary and Commerce Minister Karl Samuda; Speaker of the House Delroy Chuck; Education Minister Andrew Holness; parliamentarian James Robertson; and Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie.

In contrast, no PNP officials were in court. Also absent from the jam-packed courtroom were Dabdoub and his lead attorney, Gayle Nelson.

A disappointed Jalil Dabdoub, the junior counsel for Abe Dabdoub, said the ruling was a “blow to democracy” and did not rule out the possibility of an appeal to the London-based Privy Council where, according some legal minds, the matter could be taken as a constitutional issue.

“We will have to sit down and make a determination, if that is even a possibility,” he said. “As you know, the Election Petition Act mandates that [the Court of Appeal] is the final hearing in election petitions, but it is something we will have to look into.”

As word of the ruling spread, a throng of jubilant Labour Party supporters who had gathered outside the court, jumped for joy and shouted “Daryl! Daryl! Daryl!” and “Out with Dabdoub”!

“A free seat you want? You naah get it. Bout you want free seat,” shouted some supporters, as they vowed to return Vaz as representative for the constituency in the by-election.

The group, made up of mostly women from West Portland and other constituencies, gave Vaz a hero’s welcome as he greeted them before leaving for a press conference.

Sporting a look of dejection, a small, quiet group of PNP supporters gathered outside of court. They spoke mostly among themselves, save for a man and a heavy-set woman who were confident that Dabdoub would see victory in the by-election.

Dabdoub had brought the election petition following his defeat – 6,033 votes to Vaz’s 6,977 – in the September 3, 2007 general elections.

Yesterday evening, in response to several requests from media houses for a comment on the ruling, Public Defender Earl Witter issued a release outlining why it would be inappropriate for him to comment.

“This office is. absolutely non-political in constitution and character,” he said. “Whilst the composition of the House of Representatives is of interest to the public defender as an ordinary citizen, it is not a matter that affects his mandate… in the circumstances, it would be most inappropriate for this office to comment on the court’s ruling, and none such is, or will therefore be offered.”

He later told the Observer, “old dogs like me have no business in cock fights”.