Kenneth Rowe is to contest the West Portland constituency for the Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) against the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Daryl Vaz in the March 23 by-election.

Rowe’s candidacy was confirmed by the PNP yesterday and publicised late last night, two days after party officials went into the constituency to consult with supporters following on the announcement of the election date last Friday by Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

“The president and officers of the People’s National Party this evening confirmed Kenneth Delano Rowe as the party’s candidate to contest the by-election in West Portland on March 23, 2009,” the party said in a statement.

The party also thanked Abe Dabdoub, whose long, legal challenge of the September 2007 election outcome culminated with last Friday’s ruling by the Appeal Court that a by-election be held in the constituency.

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

The Appeal Court’s decision upheld an April 11, 2008 ruling by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla to disqualify Vaz as the member of parliament on the basis that he held American citizenship at the time of the 2007 general elections.

McCalla had also ruled that a by-election be held in the constituency and rejected a request from Dabdoub that he be awarded the seat because he had advised voters before the election that Vaz was not qualified to be nominated.

On Friday, just over an hour after the Appeal Court ruling, Golding named the election date and set this Friday, March 6, as nomination day.

Last night, the PNP said that Dabdoub will play an active role in the by-election campaign as chief campaign adviser.

Early in 2007, Dabdoub had received the nod from the PNP to contest the seat over Rowe who, like Dabdoub, was a member of the JLP. Rowe had contested the 2002 general election on a JLP ticket, losing the West Portland seat by 281 votes to the PNP’s Errol Ennis.

However, four years after that election, Rowe’s relationship with the JLP soured and he sought and received membership in the PNP.

Last night, a PNP insider described Rowe as a hard worker who is “very popular” in the constituency.

A highly placed source in the party also told the Observer that they were going into the by-election with a lot of optimism based on a current poll showing the PNP and the JLP in a statistical dead heat in the constituency.

“The poll came back last Thursday,” said the source, who opted not to be named. “It was conducted by one of the country’s most respected and credible pollsters.”

The source also denied talk in political circles that PNP supporters in West Portland had, over the weekend, rejected the idea of Dabdoub contesting the seat again.

“What the comrades told us at the sounding was that they would support Dabdoub if we could guarantee that he would give them his full attention,” he said. “However, because we want Dabdoub to concentrate fully on the other dual citizenship cases before the courts, we took the decision that we would put forward another candidate.”

The legitimacy of three JLP parliamentarians – Michael Stern (North West Clarendon), Shahine Robinson (North East St Ann), and Gregory Mair (North East St Catherine) – is being challenged in the courts on the basis that they hold dual citizenship.

A profile of Rowe provided by the PNP says that he is the financial controller at Island Car Rentals Ltd. He previously worked as the director of finance at the Tourism Product Development Company and account manager at the Business Development Bank of Canada.

Rowe graduated from the University of Technology with a Bachelors of Business Administration (Honours) and a Masters in Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University, Florida, USA.

He is a past student of Dinthill Technical High School in St Catherine and was a part-time lecturer for several years at the University of Technology, where he taught Financial Management, Accounting, and Financial Accounting for Hotels and the Hospitality Industry.