US court disqualifies Emanuel from contesting Chicago’s mayor post over residency issues

WASHINGTON - An appellate court in Illinois has disqualified Rahm Emanuel from contesting for the Mayor’s post in Chicago, saying that the former White House Chief of staff is not a resident of the city.

“A candidate must meet not only the Election Code’s voter residency standard, but also must have actually resided within the municipality for one year prior to the election, a qualification that the candidate unquestionably does not satisfy,” the New York Daily News quoted the court, as saying.

Emanuel’s attorney Kevin Forde has said that the decision was ’surprising’, and added that his client would appeal against the ruling.

Emanuel, who was earlier given a green signal both by the Chicago Board of Elections and a Cook County Circuit Court judge, said: I have no doubt at the end we will prevail.”

Since announcing his bid for mayor in November last year, the former Illinois congressman who had spent much of the last two years living in Washington while working for President Barack Obama, was placed as a heavy favorite ahead of the February 22 vote.

Emanuel has been seriously campaigning for the election of late by deploying thousands of volunteers to approach voters across the city directly and running television ads during the Bears-Packers NFC Championship game on Sunday.

However, critics have been opposing his candidature by calling him an ‘outsider’ who has rented out his house in the city while serving in the White House. (ANI)