LAWYERS representing the People's National Party's Abe Dabdoub yesterday urged the Court of Appeal to reject the Chief Justice's ruling and declare their client the duly elected Member of Parliament for the West Portland constituency.

Senior counsel Gayle Nelson said that should the court uphold the Chief Justice's ruling that a by-election be held in the constituency, it would in effect be disenfranchising the legitimate votes made by those who cast ballots for Dabdoub.

"If we take the view that we must not put [Dabdoub] in the seat and call a by-election what we are actively doing is throwing away the only legitimate votes in West Portland," Gayle said.

Nelson said that the court had no option but to declare Dabdoub the duly elected member of the constituency as he had, leading up to the September 3, 2007 general election, issued the required notice informing voters that his opponent Daryl Vaz was a US citizen, that he possessed a US passport and that votes cast for him would be wasted.

In disqualifying Vaz as an MP in April Chief Justice Zaila McCalla said in her lengthy ruling that she could not declare Dabdoub the duly elected member because the information on the issued notices was not sufficient.