Court sessions off due to polling

National

WAIGANI committal court police prosecutors were unable to attend courts since Monday due to the deferred polling dates, says a senior police officer.
Prosecution officer-in-charge Chief Insp Bobby Alisa told The National that the one day polling date for the National Capital District was deferred from Monday to today which affected the court.
“There will be no court sessions tomorrow because it is the polling date for NCD and also everyone needs to exercise their constitutional rights to vote,” he said.
“Most of the police prosecutors are part of the election security operations and the court must understand that General Election 2022(GE22) is a national event.”
Alisa said they had written a letter to the district and committal court clerks advising them that the police prosecutors would be on election duties.
“We are asking the courts to adjourn all cases and we will inform all the defendants,” he said.
He said there would be a few of the police prosecutors available on Thursday and Friday of this week and the whole of next week to attend to only urgent matters while others would fully focus on the election.
He said that half of the prosecution team, mostly female officers, would be deployed during the counting period.