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Vaz blasts JLP, PNP Vaz blasts JLP, PNP
Empathises with Danville Walker
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
DARYL Vaz picked up his Loss of United States Citizenship Certificate yesterday and immediately blasted members of parliament from both political parties who have not yet declared their dual citizenship.
Saying he was now "100 per cent ready" for a by-election in the disputed West Portland constituency, Vaz suggested it was time the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Leader of the House and the People's National Party (PNP) Leader of Opposition Business got together to resolve the constitutional impasse created by the dual citizenship issue.
"We have a constitutional crisis on our hands and nothing is being done to resolve it," an obviously impatient Vaz told the Observer, after his trip to the US embassy to get the certificate which completes his renouncement of US citizenship.
At the same time, Vaz commended Danville Walker on his decision to resign as director of elections, describing it as "the principled and statesmanlike thing to do" and "nothing less than what I would have expected of Mr Danville Walker".
Walker handed in his resignation letter a day earlier, citing the April 18, 2008 ruling by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla that Vaz was not constitutionally qualified to sit in the Jamaican Parliament, because he had renewed his US passport, signalling that he had sworn allegiance to the US of which he became a citizen as a child.
Section 3 of the Electoral Commission (Interim) Act similarly applies to Walker, who served as director of elections for three weeks short of 11 years but who has opted not to renounce his US citizenship which he has held since 1994.
McCalla also ruled that a by-election be held to decide the winner of the West Portland seat. But saying he should have been given the seat, Abe Dabdoub, whose court action to oust Vaz triggered the crisis, is appealing.
Vaz insisted that he had done what he had to do to become eligible and complained that since the ruling, little or nothing had been done to ensure the constitutional integrity of the parliament.
"I had expected that all MPs who were affected by the ruling, on both sides of the House, would have by now declared their hand. It seems that a 'hide and seek' game is being played," he declared.
He said that if the PNP and Dabdoub went through with the planned appeal against the by-election ruling, it would be against the traditional method of selecting the representative of the people - through elections.
He charged that while PNP President Portia Simpson Miller had indicated she would co-operate to solve the crisis, the PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill had declared support for Dabdoub.
Vaz, a junior minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, also urged MPs with US Resident Alien or Green Cards to declare that too, telling them that they had "a moral obligation so to do".
"How can you sit in the Jamaican parliament and every two months you have to travel to the States to ensure you comply with their law that you are a resident of the United States?" Vaz asked. "That too should be put on the table."
Empathises with Danville Walker
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
DARYL Vaz picked up his Loss of United States Citizenship Certificate yesterday and immediately blasted members of parliament from both political parties who have not yet declared their dual citizenship.
Saying he was now "100 per cent ready" for a by-election in the disputed West Portland constituency, Vaz suggested it was time the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Leader of the House and the People's National Party (PNP) Leader of Opposition Business got together to resolve the constitutional impasse created by the dual citizenship issue.
"We have a constitutional crisis on our hands and nothing is being done to resolve it," an obviously impatient Vaz told the Observer, after his trip to the US embassy to get the certificate which completes his renouncement of US citizenship.
At the same time, Vaz commended Danville Walker on his decision to resign as director of elections, describing it as "the principled and statesmanlike thing to do" and "nothing less than what I would have expected of Mr Danville Walker".
Walker handed in his resignation letter a day earlier, citing the April 18, 2008 ruling by Chief Justice Zaila McCalla that Vaz was not constitutionally qualified to sit in the Jamaican Parliament, because he had renewed his US passport, signalling that he had sworn allegiance to the US of which he became a citizen as a child.
Section 3 of the Electoral Commission (Interim) Act similarly applies to Walker, who served as director of elections for three weeks short of 11 years but who has opted not to renounce his US citizenship which he has held since 1994.
McCalla also ruled that a by-election be held to decide the winner of the West Portland seat. But saying he should have been given the seat, Abe Dabdoub, whose court action to oust Vaz triggered the crisis, is appealing.
Vaz insisted that he had done what he had to do to become eligible and complained that since the ruling, little or nothing had been done to ensure the constitutional integrity of the parliament.
"I had expected that all MPs who were affected by the ruling, on both sides of the House, would have by now declared their hand. It seems that a 'hide and seek' game is being played," he declared.
He said that if the PNP and Dabdoub went through with the planned appeal against the by-election ruling, it would be against the traditional method of selecting the representative of the people - through elections.
He charged that while PNP President Portia Simpson Miller had indicated she would co-operate to solve the crisis, the PNP chairman Robert Pickersgill had declared support for Dabdoub.
Vaz, a junior minister in the Office of the Prime Minister, also urged MPs with US Resident Alien or Green Cards to declare that too, telling them that they had "a moral obligation so to do".
"How can you sit in the Jamaican parliament and every two months you have to travel to the States to ensure you comply with their law that you are a resident of the United States?" Vaz asked. "That too should be put on the table."
If Vaz get rid of every Jamaican who holds a foreign passport or permanement residency in a non commomweath country then parliament would be half empty and the rest of the top level of goverment would be depleted. 
Vaz just need some time to heal. Time is the master of everything 
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