Governor Dua files slip-rule application for court

By GIDEON KINDIWA
CHIMBU Governor Michael Dua has filed a slip-rule application challenging a Supreme Court’s decision last month which refused his request to have an election petition against him reviewed.
An election petition was filed by his predecessor Noah Kool challenging Dua’s victory during the 2017 general election.
It was upheld by the National Court which then ordered a recount of the votes.
Dua however asked the Supreme Court to have that decision reviewed.
Justice Derek Hartshorn sitting as a sole judge of the Supreme Court last month refused Dua’s application.
Now Dua’s lawyer Cammilus Gagma of Gagma Legal Services is arguing that Justice Hartshorn’s decision had “errors of law” which should be corrected.
Justice Hartshorn in last month’s ruling said the decision to uphold Kool’s petition was “not final” because the court had ordered a recount of the votes, and the final result was to be presented to the court for a further hearing.
He said it meant that the decision did not fall within Supreme Court Rules which would allow for an application for leave to review, as Dua wanted.
But Gagma is arguing that the trial “was concluded and the court has ordered a recount”.
He said it meant that there was no more to be done.
And thereby the court should have approved Dua’s application to review the earlier decision on Kool’s petition.
Gagma in the slip rule application is submitting that the decision by the National Court to order a recount was final because after the recount, results would be presented and declaration made.
There will be no more hearing, he argued.