Should the People's National Party (PNP) need further evidence of its organisational impotence or just how intellectually flaccid it has grown, it need only remind itself of last week's events regarding the Supreme Court's ruling in the parliamentary eligibility case involving Mr Michael Stern of the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), who used to be member of parliament (MP) for North West Clarendon.

The PNP's disordered lurches ought to be good news for Prime Minister Bruce Golding. If he has the will, he can take the necessarily tough actions to fix the economy, confident of facing no credible opposition from the PNP.

Mr Stern, it is recalled, is the third of four JLP MPs whose election to the House of Representatives in the 2007 national poll was challenged by the PNP on the grounds that at the time of their nominations, they were by virtue of their own act under "acknowledgement of allegiance, obedience or adherence to a foreign power or state". In other words, apart from their Jamaican citizenship, they were citizens of non-Commonwealth countries, which made them ineligible to be members of the Jamaican legislature.

By-election

In the first of these cases to reach the court, against Daryl Vaz, the West Portland MP, both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal held that there should be a by-election rather than awarding the seat to Mr Vaz's opponent Mr Abe Dabdoub, as his lawyers argued. In a summary ruling, the Supreme Court came to the same verdict with regard to Gregory Mair in North East St Catherine.

In the Stern case, Mr Dabdoub, now acting for Mr Richard Azan, held that the seat should be awarded to his client rather than a by-election being held. Justice Hibbert did not make a summary ruling, apparently preferring time to test Mr Dabdoub's arguments for new insights and circumstances, which might have warranted a different outcome to the previous case. In the end, he was not so convinced.

It is what happened next that is bizarre. Mr Dabdoub, supposedly acting on the instruction of his client, gave verbal notice of appeal and sought a 42-day stay before a by-election could be held. The judge declined.

Wantonly spent resources

But then, Mr Azan announced he would not contest the by-election because of actions by the ruling party to "buy" the election. In other words, state resources were being wantonly spent in North West Clarendon. He also claimed that his decision was in part because the country needed to settle down from the series of by-elections.

That sounds good. But what principle would Mr Azan have embraced if he was awarded the seat?

All of this is thrown into sharp focus by the statement of the PNP's chairman, Mr Robert Pickersgill, that in pursuing these cases "our intention has always been that the integrity of membership of Parliament should be beyond question". He felt the PNP has been vindicated.

The PNP's intellectual and moral compass, on this matter, is gravely askew. It is right to pursue the cases. But the party seems blissfully ignorant that Mrs Sharon Hay-Webster of South Central St Catherine is, by her own, very belated admission, in the same position. There is also a question mark over Mr Ian Hayles.

And the PNP pretends to leadership! Jamaica deserves better.

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