Kua: Election petition rules need to change focus

By MARK HAIHUIE
A FOCUS on procedural rules over substantive complaints by the judiciary in election petition cases leads to unresolved grievances that can lead to incidents of civil unrest such as the torching of a Link PNG aircraft in Mendi last week, an MP says.
Former Minister for Justice and Attorney-General and current Sinasina-Yongomugl MP Kerenga Kua appealed to the judiciary to relax procedural rules and allow for substantive complaints to be fast-tracked and heard.
The traditional approach was to have the petitioner and the accused party come before the judiciary to resolve the substantive issues of the case, he said.
He said this approach changed when the judiciary introduced new election petition rules which placed greater emphasis on procedure rules over substantive complaints of a case.
The procedural rules were overly enforced, making it difficult for petitioners’ substantive complaints to be heard in the court process, he said.
“More than 50 per cent of the petitions have been dismissed through objections of competency and this is from procedures because the rules say that and the judges follow it,” Kua claimed.
“Pressure has been built up because the rules of courts have not allowed them to go down to the heart and soul of their complaint.
“Substantive justice has never been delivered out of the 2012 and these current election petitions as majority have failed due to competency, which means procedure has overridden substantive complaint.
“Bel hevi blo mahn stap yet. Presa em woklo bild up lo olgeta hap blo PNG lo displa na nau em blow up lo Mendi.” (The grievance remains. Pressure has built up from this across PNG and now it has exploded in Mendi.)