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Now that all that is over.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
We are happy that much of the brouhaha triggered by last Sunday's passage of Category four Hurricane Dean has abated following Governor General Kenneth Hall's proclamation postponing the general elections from August 27 to September 3 and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller bowing to public pressure to lift the State of Public Emergency.
For with both proclamations come a clarity that should serve to alleviate much of the uncertainty and apprehension that surfaced in the face of these two unexpected developments.
The controversy created by the prime minister's declaration of the State of Public Emergency, as well as her administration's bungling of the process leading up to the announcement of a new date for general elections, will likely take their place among the mix of factors that will influence the Jamaican public's decision at the general elections next week.
However, we believe there is another issue that has the potential of disrupting the result of next week's historic voting exercise.
We speak of the issue of alleged dual citizenship of some candidates.
According to the hierarchy of the ruling People's National Party (PNP), it is actively gathering evidence - which it intends to take to court - to the effect that some of the candidates in next week's race for a seat in the House of Representatives are unqualified to do so under section 41(2) of the Jamaican Constitution.
The argument - seemingly refuted by Mr Danville Walker, the director of elections, in a statement published in one of our recent editions - is that these candidates' voluntarily acquired citizenship of another country renders them ineligible for nomination.
This, coupled with highly persuasive precedents coming out of Trinidad and Tobago in the consolidated cases of Messrs Winston Peters and William Chaitan would suggest that if it emerges that any of the winning candidates are 'foreigners' they will inevitably have to vacate their seats.
Messrs Peters and Chaitan, who were elected to the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago on December 11, 2000, were declared ineligible for Parliamentary office by virtue of their dual citizenship, some months later in a judgment penned by the country's then chief justice, Mr Michael de la Bastide.
At that stage, there was no room for debate about renouncing their foreign allegiances in order to render themselves fit for office. They simply had to go. But whether or not the issue that allegedly concerns some of the candidates in next Monday's race gets that far, we believe their public profiles are going to get smudged if their constituents discover from a source other than their mouths that they have pledged allegiance to a foreign power.
It's far better, we think, for them to come clean with their status - even if they intend to dispute what would appear to be the indisputable - and let the chips fall where they may, in the courts of law as well as public opinion.
Because believe it or not, there will still be life after Parliament.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
We are happy that much of the brouhaha triggered by last Sunday's passage of Category four Hurricane Dean has abated following Governor General Kenneth Hall's proclamation postponing the general elections from August 27 to September 3 and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller bowing to public pressure to lift the State of Public Emergency.
For with both proclamations come a clarity that should serve to alleviate much of the uncertainty and apprehension that surfaced in the face of these two unexpected developments.
The controversy created by the prime minister's declaration of the State of Public Emergency, as well as her administration's bungling of the process leading up to the announcement of a new date for general elections, will likely take their place among the mix of factors that will influence the Jamaican public's decision at the general elections next week.
However, we believe there is another issue that has the potential of disrupting the result of next week's historic voting exercise.
We speak of the issue of alleged dual citizenship of some candidates.
According to the hierarchy of the ruling People's National Party (PNP), it is actively gathering evidence - which it intends to take to court - to the effect that some of the candidates in next week's race for a seat in the House of Representatives are unqualified to do so under section 41(2) of the Jamaican Constitution.
The argument - seemingly refuted by Mr Danville Walker, the director of elections, in a statement published in one of our recent editions - is that these candidates' voluntarily acquired citizenship of another country renders them ineligible for nomination.
This, coupled with highly persuasive precedents coming out of Trinidad and Tobago in the consolidated cases of Messrs Winston Peters and William Chaitan would suggest that if it emerges that any of the winning candidates are 'foreigners' they will inevitably have to vacate their seats.
Messrs Peters and Chaitan, who were elected to the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago on December 11, 2000, were declared ineligible for Parliamentary office by virtue of their dual citizenship, some months later in a judgment penned by the country's then chief justice, Mr Michael de la Bastide.
At that stage, there was no room for debate about renouncing their foreign allegiances in order to render themselves fit for office. They simply had to go. But whether or not the issue that allegedly concerns some of the candidates in next Monday's race gets that far, we believe their public profiles are going to get smudged if their constituents discover from a source other than their mouths that they have pledged allegiance to a foreign power.
It's far better, we think, for them to come clean with their status - even if they intend to dispute what would appear to be the indisputable - and let the chips fall where they may, in the courts of law as well as public opinion.
Because believe it or not, there will still be life after Parliament.
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