Court upheld Manase’s objection to competency

THE Waigani Supreme Court has upheld Kandep MP Alfred Manase’s objection to competency against an appeal by petitioner and former MP Don Poyle who was appealing a decision made by chief justice Sir Gibbs Salika.
The three-man bench comprised of Justices David Cannings, Nicholas Kirriwom and Joseph Yagi.
They unanimously upheld only one of the eight grounds, which stated that it could not review a decision made by a single supreme court judge (Salika), in turn making Polye’s appeal incompetent.
Poyle appealed a decision by Sir Gibbs which granted Manase leave to review a National Court decision that ordered a recount for the Kandep Open seat.
On June 9, Justice Cannings, sitting as a single supreme court judge, granted leave to Poyle to file an amended notice of motion regarding the appeal against the decision of the chief justice. On June 19, Poyle filed and served an amended notice of motion. On June 29, Manase filed a notice of objection to competency against Poyle’s motion of Oct 19 2019, and of June 19 (amended).