Government Parliamentarian Desmond Gregory Mair was yesterday disqualified from the legislature by the Supreme Court, setting the stage for a by-election in the North East St Catherine constituency which Prime Minister Bruce Golding immediately announced would be held on June 16.

Golding also named May 29 nomination day during a press conference at the ruling Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) Belmont Road headquarters in Kingston, less than two hours after the court ruling.

The ruling by Justice Horace Marsh followed a joint submission by lawyers for both parties out of an agreement between Mair and the People’s National Party’s (PNP’s) Phyllis Mitchell, who had brought the election petition to unseat Mair following her loss in t he September 2007 general elections.

As part of the agreement, which saw the 2007 election in the constituency being declared null and void, Mair admitted that he was the holder of a passport issued by the Republic of Venezuela, on which he had travelled, and that he was not properly nominated on August 7 to contest the general election because of his citizenship with the South American country.

For her part, Mitchell agreed that the seat would not go to her, as originally requested in her petition, because the notices she circulated within the constituency regarding Mair’s status were not “clear, definite or certain”, based on statements made by the then director of elections, Danville Walker.

The agreement was based on the precedent set by the 2008 ruling in the election petition brought by the PNP’s Abe Dabdoub which unseated the JLP’s Daryl Vaz as MP for the West Portland constituency in the Supreme Court. A by-election was ordered in which Vaz later defeated the PNP’s new candidate, Kenneth Rowe, to reclaim the seat.

The Constitution of Jamaica forbids anyone with sworn allegiance to a foreign power, other than Commonwealth states, to contest a general election.

Costs, at $3 million, were made in favour of Mitchell.

Moments after the ruling, Mair told the Observer that he would be contesting the by-election.

“Yes, I’m offering myself of course,” said Mair, who later told reporters that he was confident of being re-elected.

“I’m extremely confident because of the work I have done in the constituency,” said Mair, while informing that he had renounced his citizenship in August 2007 after nomination day, when questions were raised about his status.

It was not clear up to yesterday evening who the PNP’s candidate for the by-election would be.

At yesterday’s press conference, Golding was asked whether the two remaining dual citizenship cases – the PNP’s Richard Azan against Michael Stern (North West Clarendon), which is set for July 27, and the PNP’s Oswest Senior-Smith versus Shahine Robertson (North East St Ann) – could not have been resolved at the time to facilitate three by-elections. However, he said that only the courts could determine whether the MPs in question were eligible to sit in Gordon House.

“Each case has to be examined on its own particularities,” said Golding. “We are not seeking to overrun the courts and as such have to wait until the cases come up.”

Golding said also that there were currently discussions between the two parties, at the level of their general secretaries, to determine whether the other petitions would be similarly resolved.

Mair, who also spoke at the press conference, said he had not travelled to Venezuela since 1994 and that his desire was to spend the rest of his life in Jamaica with his wife and children.

“My wife and children live with me here in Jamaica, and God willing, Jamaica being where my life commenced, it will also be where it ends,” said Mair.

Robinson has been selected as Mair’s campaign director while Senator Warren Newby, president of Generation 2000, has been selected as campaign manager, the JLP announced yesterday. The campaign is to be overseen by JLP general secretary Karl Samuda and James Robertson, deputy leader for Area Council 2.

Director of Elections Orette Fisher told the Observer yesterday that his office has been in a state of readiness, as it was aware of the pending decision in the case. Fisher said also that the Electoral Office of Jamaica will, by next week, be able to say what the cost of the upcoming by-election will be.