Court dismisses election petition against Kuman

GUMINII open MP Nick Kuman’s seat is now safe following a Supreme Court decision that dismissed an application to review a petition filed by candidate Lukas Dekena that was previously dismissed in the National Court.
The petition disputed Kuman’s win during last year’s national election.
Judge Ambeng Kandakasi, who sat as a single judge yesterday on behalf of a three-man bench of Judges Iova Geita, Robert Lee Lindsay and himself, dismissed the application after finding that there were no merits to the grounds appealed from a National Court decision that had previously dismissed the case.
The court found that the applicant was not able to assist the court with any sufficient grounds which acknowledged the case nor the arguments against the application.
“Counsel for the applicant failed to assist this court with submissions of how his client’s case meets the submissions on the law and is therefore incompetent,” Justice Kandakasi said.
He said the first issue concerned the respondent pointing out that ground one was not one included in the grounds for which leave was sought in the leave application.
“The applicant, whose duty was to pinpoint where grounds for the leave were, had failed to do so. The examination of the grounds for the leave application is against ground one of the review application and it failed to have registered for which leave was sought and granted.