National Court dismisses Zeming’s judicial review application

The Waigani National Court dismissed a judicial review application by former Tewai-Siassi MP Mao Zeming on Friday regarding two dates of declaration for the seat.
Justice Collin Makail ruled that Zeming failed to prove on the balance of probabilities that the date of the declaration of the writ was fabricated.
Justice Makail said no gross error was established to justify granting an order to quash the decision of the Electoral Commission to accept July 18 as the date of declaration of the result of the election and Dr Kobby Bomareo as the candidate elected for the Tewai-Siassi electorate.
The court heard the date written on the writ was July 18 and the writ was returned to the Electoral Commission in Port Moresby on July 24.
Dr Kobby said he signed the writ on July 19 in Lae at around 10pm.
The court also found that there was no relevance to the other date of declaration of July 18 because Dr Kobby was not at Sialum Station when the declaration was made and was only informed of it.
The decision followed an application for judicial review of the decision of the Electoral Commission to accept July 18 and not July 19 as the date of the declaration of Dr Kobby as the elected candidate for the Tewai-Siassi electorate.
Zeming alleged that the date of the declaration was July 19 and alleged the National Court Registry in law rejected his petition to dispute the election of Dr Kobby because it was lodged one day outside the 40 days prescribed by the Organic Law.
Zeming also alleged that the date of the writ was fabricated by someone other than the returning officer who signed the writ as July 18.