Headlines:
| PNP candidate for North East St. Catherine triumphs in the courts |
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| Friday, 16 May 2008 | |
 Attorney Abe Dabdoub has won another legal victory....this
time in the Appeal Court
which ruled in favour of his client, People's National Party (PNP) candidate
Phyllis Mitchell.Ms Mitchell is attempting to unseat sitting Member of Parliament for North East St. Catherine, the Jamaica Labour Party's Gregory Mair. The Appeal court agreed with Mr. Dabdoub that Ms Mitchell's election petition against Mr. Mair was properly served. Mr. Dabdoub said this is a landmark ruling which sets a precedent for all election petition cases. The Judgement by the three member panel overturns the ruling of the Lower court that the petition filed by Ms. Mitchell was not properly served and therefore was invalid. The panel accepted Mr. Dabdoub's argument that once the petition was properly addressed and put in the registered post it was a done deal. In November last year, just ahead of the general election, Ms Mitchell filed an election petition charging that Mr. Mair was unqualified to sit as MP because he had Venezuelan citizenship. Mr. Mair contended that he was in Parliament when he was served with the documents and Senior Puisne Judge Marva McIntosh upheld the submission. But Ms. Mitchell also sent the same petition by registered mail to an address in the St. Catherine North East constituency, which Mr. Mair represents. Friday the court found that this was valid. And the impact of this judgement is likely to be far-reaching as regards all similar cases which are pending. Mr. Dabdoub said unless Mr. Mair decides to concede, the PNP will be going ahead with its pursuit of the matter in the courts. He adds that the way has been cleared for the legal pursuit of all other petitions which were served in a similar manner against winning JLP candidates following last September's General Election. He said the party's legal team will now have a case management meeting and prepare to go to trial. |