MP to face petition case

 POLICE Minister Nixon Duban will face another challenge in court on his Madang Open seat by-election victory.

Bryan Kramer, who was the runner-up to him, filed the election petitionon Jan 27.

Duban won the Madang by-election last December. 

He had won the seat during the 2012 general election.

The National Court had ordered a by-election for the seat after Kramer’s successful election petition.

Kramer told the court yesterday he could not locate Duban to serve him the court documents.

Justice Colin Makail granted Kramer a further 14 days to serve the petition because he believed the petitioner had made genuine attempts to serve it on Duban.  

Election petitions should be served 14 days after they are filed, meaning the expiry date for Kramer was Feb 10. The extension will give him until Feb 24.

Kramer told the court that he had left messages at Duban’s office but did not get any response. 

Kramer said the other option was to go to Parliament House where Duban was attending the current parliament session.