High court challenge casts doubt on LLG elections

By GIDEON KINDIWA
The Supreme Court will decide whether the local level government elections should go ahead with the issuing of writs today or be deferred again.
It follows an application filed yesterday by the Umi-Atzera local level government in Morobe to defer the elections until a special reference filed by the Ombudsman Commission in 2017 regarding the legality of the deferral of LLG elections had been dealt with.
Umi-Atzera LLG lawyer Timwapa Dawidi filed the application before Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika yesterday. He will make a ruling today.
Dawidi submitted that the reference raised serious issues of law regarding the conduct of elections, which he said should be sorted out first before the writs were issued.
He said the Organic Law on provincial and local level government elections stated that writs for LLG elections should be issued within three months after the return of writs for the general election, which should have been done in 2017.
He said questions raised by the Ombudsman Commission had not been determined yet.
“The question is whether an LLG election conducted almost three years after the return of writs for the national election raises constitutional issues that needs answers,” he said.
“If the elections proceed, the ward councillors and presidents will serve a term of about two years. Is the official term two years, or two and a half years, or five years?”
The Electoral Commission objected to the application stating that the five questions raised by the Ombudsman Commission did not directly relate to the issue of writs.
Electoral Commission lawyer Steven Ranewa said the reference was in relation to the legality of the LLG elections deferral for more than three months and was not about the issue of writs.
“The questions raised in the reference were to find out whether the deferral for more than three months is illegal. The Electoral Commission should proceed with the issuing of the writs as it has nothing to do with the reference,” he said.
“A lot of work has been put in and funds have been spent to prepare for the issuing of writs and it must not be stayed.”