ABE DABDOUB, the defeated People's National Party (PNP) candidate in the 2007 general election, has said West Portland electors are warming to Kenneth Rowe.

Dabdoub lost the battle for West Portland to the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Daryl Vaz in September 2007 but was successful in having the court boot Vaz, on grounds of illegitimacy, forcing a March 23 by-election.

Vaz, at the time of his nomi-nation, was an American citizen. He was disqualified by the courts for having pledged allegiance to a foreign power, which is prohibited under the Constitution.

Rowe, who like Dabdoub is a former Labourite, has been nominated to face off with Vaz - who has since renounced his American citizenship - in Monday's by-election.

Dabdoub told The Gleaner recently that the constituents have reacted "very favourably" to Rowe. Dabdoub said that he expects the turnout of PNP voters to be significantly better for Rowe than it was for him in the 2007 general election.

Vaz beat Dabdoub by 944 votes in the 2007 election. Vaz polled 6,977 votes to Dabdoub's 6,033.

"I think the PNP percentage of the turnout will be much, much higher than what it was when I was the candidate," Dabdoub said, though noting that he does not expect a large overall voter turnout, which falls in line with trends in Jamaican by-elections.

Vaz confident

Vaz has expressed confidence about winning the by-election, saying he would be disappointed if he did not increase his majority by at least 2,000 votes.

Rowe brought the JLP to within 281 votes of winning West Portland in the 2002 general poll. Then, he chopped into a 2,000-plus margin of then incumbent, Errol Ennis. Rowe subsequently switched allegiance to the PNP after Vaz was selected by JLP delegates to contest the 2007 general election.

Political pundits have predicted a humdinger in the Vaz-Rowe race. Party sources said last month that an internal poll had influenced the PNP's decision to replace Dab-doub with Rowe. The poll reportedly showed Dabdoub 29 points behind Vaz.

Asked Rowe to run

However, Dabdoub said he had long indicated to the leadership of the constituency that he would not contest the seat if the Court of Appeal had upheld the chief justice's judgment for a by-election.

"I am the person who asked Kenneth Rowe to run from long ago too," Dabdoub said.

He added: "From the time I took up these five cases, I knew that I did not have the time to devote to both the cases and to the constituency and I told the constituency executive that ... . It was just a very well-kept secret."

daraine.luton@gleanerjm.com