Election petition case ruling postponed

Main Stories

By GIDEON KINDIWA
THE election petition case between Hagen MP William Duma and runner-up James Puk may be split into two different hearings or remain as one.
A three-member Supreme Court bench of Justice Ellenas Batari, Justice Derek Hartshorn and Justice Jacinta Murray heard the case in which Duma had applied for an order to stop the trial from proceeding.
Duma has been granted leave to review a National Court decision that approved Puk’s petition, afterwards he applied for a stay on the trial.
According to Justice Batari, if the stay order was granted, the trial would stop and the Supreme Court would review the decision which approved Puk’s petition and ordered the trial.
However, if refused, the trial would proceed in the National Court, so is the reviewing of the decision in the Supreme Court.
That would be two separate hearings.
On Oct 31 last year, Puk filed a petition challenging the victory by Duma in the 2017 general election.
The objection to competency was heard by Justice David Cannings in a National Court where six grounds of the petition were dismissed, and one ground of errors and omissions was allowed to proceed to trial.
Cannings refused to dismiss Puk’s petition by saying that the facts as required by Section 208 (a) of the Organic Law had been pleaded.
He refused to dismiss the seventh ground.
Duma filed an application under section 155 (b) of the Constitution to review the decision.
Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika granted his application in a Supreme Court hearing on Dec 21 last year.
Duma then applied for a stay on the trial so that review could be done first.
His application was presented in court yesterday.
Puk’s lawyer challenged it, stating that it was “incompetent” and had “no merit”.
He further argued that the Supreme Court did not have the jurisdiction to grant the application to stay the proceedings of the trial, but could only stay the decision.
Duma’s lawyer responded that the trial should be stayed as it was the same as the decision which ordered a trial and the “orders cannot operate in isolation”.
The judges adjourned the ruling to Monday.