MP keeps seat after winning court challenge

Namatanai MP Walter Schnaubelt has successfully defended an election petition against him by Byron Chan after the National Court dismissed it for incompetency.
Justice Terence Foulds handed down the ruling on Tuesday after hearing submissions.
Lawyer Keith Iduhu, of Fairfax Legal, represented Schnaubelt. He told the court that the case could not proceed to trial because it did not comply with Section 208 of Organic Law on the National and Local Level Government Elections.
He argued that the allegation of the “balus vote” was not an illegal practice as contemplated by section 178 of the Organic Law and the Criminal Code.
He told the court that the issue of what was termed as the “balus vote” adopted by Schnaubelt, could not be deemed as illegal in any way to any extent that carried the possibility of affecting the course
of a free and fair election process.
The court dismissed the petition because it failed to provide adequate evidence to prove the allegations in the petition.