THE embattled Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) on Monday suffered a blow to its already razor-thin parliamentary majority when the Supreme Court, in a default judgement, declared the St Ann North East seat vacant.

The move forced the incumbent Shahine Robinson to remain outside of the chamber of Parliament yesterday during a crucial sitting of the House of Representatives.

Following on the ruling, a letter was sent by Justice Roy Jones to Speaker of the House Delroy Chuck, informing that Robinson had been disqualified from her seat in Parliament due to her dual nationality with the United States which contravenes the Jamaican Constitution.

“Pursuant to section 20 (f) of the Election Act, it is hereby certified that that by virtue of Section 39 and Section 40 of the Constitution of Jamaica Mrs Shahine Robinson was not qualified to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives and accordingly the election of September 3, 2007 for the constituency of St Ann North-East is null and void and of no effect and the seat is declared vacant,” Jones’ letter read.

Jones’ ruling took the hierarchy of the governing JLP off guard, as it wrestles to keep its majority over the PNP, which now stands at 31-28.

JLP general secretary Karl Samuda said that the default judgement, which was handed down in Robinson’s absence, must have been a misunderstanding over the need for Robinson to appear in court on Monday.

“It has come as a surprise and it’s clear that something terribly wrong occurred,” Samuda told the Observer.

The ruling could not have come at a more troubling time for the shaky JLP Government, which up to last night was locked in a debate of no-confidence brought by the Opposition against Prime Minister Bruce Golding over his handling of the extradition request of alleged Tivoli Gardens drug lord Christopher ‘Dudus’ Coke, who is wanted in the United States to answer drug- and gun-trafficking charges.

Jones’ ruling means that there will now have to be a by-election to elect a representative for the constituency.

The PNP has already forced three by-elections in JLP seats on the grounds of dual citizenship. Daryl Vaz (West Portland), Desmond Gregory Mair (North East St Catherine), and Michael Stern (North West Clarendon) all retained their seats in by-elections.

But Robinson’s legal team yesterday launched its fight to have the ruling overturned. An application has been filed in the High Court for a stay of execution of Jones’ ruling which, if successful, would allow Robinson to remain in Parliament while her lawyers challenge the judgement. The application will be heard tomorrow.

Robinson’s disqualification was set in train by a petition from the PNP’s Manley Bowen who, following the September 3, 2007 general elections in which Oswest Senior-Smith was defeated in his challenge for the constituency, said that Robinson was ineligible to sit in Parliament because she held US citizenship.

Robinson had secured 11,632 votes to Senior-Smith’s 9,610.

Her booting came on Monday after she had previously failed to show up for pre-trial review and failing to comply with an order for directions on April 14, Jones wrote.

An application for the default judgement was filed on May 12 and was set for hearing on Monday but neither Robinson nor her legal team turned up for the hearing.

Ernest Smith, Robinson’s lead attorney, yesterday expressed shock at the ruling as the case was scheduled to be heard on June 7. He said that the legal team was never served with any document to appear before the court on Monday and questioned whether or not Jones was misled with what he termed “inappropriate” representation, which resulted in the ruling.

“We got correspondence from the lawyers representing Manley Bowen about four weeks ago to say that they would not be available for the hearing on the 7th of June and they would be asking that the matter be taken off the list and they had asked us to agree on a later date,” Smith said.

Smith complained that the case was still at a preliminary stage and that no witness statement had been filed by Bowen. He said that the affidavit which was before the court was based “clearly on hearsay”.

In the meantime, JLP supporters in the constituency were mum as they too were in a state of shock upon hearing the ruling.

Costs were awarded in favour of Bowen, who was represented by attorneys Abe Dabdoub and Raymond Clough, instructed by the firm Knight Junor & Samuels.