JAMAICAN taxpayers could again be asked to fork out millions to finance by-elections once the December 29 general election is over.

This, because the Representation of the People Act, the piece of legislation which outlines eligibility requirements to contest an election and the qualifiers to sit in the House of Representatives, has not been amended to include persons who are dual citizens of Jamaica and nations outside of the British Commonwealth.

Such persons, according to the Electoral Office of Jamaica, can still be duly nominated to contest the elections since the only criteria are that the candidates have signatures from 10 electors registered in the particular constituency, pay a $3,000 fee and submit their nomination forms to returning officers between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm tomorrow, Nomination Day.

“The returning officer does not have the authority to refuse someone’s application based on dual-citizenship issues,” explained Christin Senior, public education officer at the EOJ. “That’s a matter for the Courts to decide.”

“(He) cannot turn that person back or make any such checks because the Representation of the People Act outlines the three requirements for nomination. (He) does not have the power to (refuse) somebody because that person doesn’t meet the requirements to sit in the House of Representatives,” she added.

After the 2007 election, which was won by the Jamaica Labour Party, the Opposition People’s National Party challenged several JLP MPs on the grounds that they were citizens of non-Commonwealth states. However, in court ordered by-elections that cost taxpayers more than $100 million, Daryl Vaz (West Portland), Desmond Gregory Mair (North East St Catherine), Michael Stern (North West Clarendon) and Shahine Robinson (North East St Ann) retained their seats.

The JLP in apparent retaliation, brought its own cases against the PNP, and tried to boot Ian Hayles from West Hanover and Sharon Hay Webster from South Central St Catherine.

The case against Hayles did not make it to the courts and that against Hay Webster could end in an out of court settlement since she crossed the political floor.

Director of elections at the time, Danville Walker — who is now seeking to win Central Manchester from the PNP’s Peter Bunting — insisted that all candidates, including those later found to be dual citizens, had been duly nominated.

To date, none of the political parties have declared which of their members hold dual citizenship.

Come tomorrow, both the JLP and the PNP are expected to nominate 63 candidates each. Third parties and independents are also expected to field candidates.

“Not only must they (electors whose names are on nomination forms) be registered to vote, they must be registered in the constituency in which the candidate is running,” Senior pointed out. “So if you are running for St Andrew South West, then all those 10 persons must be registered in St Andrew South West. We will do our checks, because we have the voters’ list,” she said.

Last week, the EOJ published its latest voters’ list of 1,648,036 million, of which there were 41, 607 new electors.