Supreme court dismisses election petition

 By CHARLES MOI  

THE Supreme Court has dismissed an election petition filed against Madang MP Nixon Duban by businessman Peter Yama. 

The Supreme Court panel comprising Justice Colin Makail, Justice Martin Ipang and Justice Sir Kina Bona unanimously dismissed the election petition review. 

This is because Yama failed to comply with the court’s direction to file and serve the review book seven days before the hearing. 

Makail said the normal procedure was that the applicant filed and served the review book before the court allocated a hearing date. 

He said the onus was on Yama to bring the matter to finality. 

Makail said the Madang people were entitled to know who their parliamentary representative was. Yama’s lawyer Nixon Kiuk had asked the court to give him time to file the review book. He said the review raised errors and omission against the Electoral Commission. 

Duban’s lawyer Paul Mawa submitted that the review be dismissed because Yama had failed to comply with the Supreme Court directive. 

Yama had sought a review of the National Court’s judicial powers of Oct 8, 2014 which confirmed Duban as MP, after a court had ordered recount.

The National Court on Aug 6 last year upheld Yama’s petition and ordered a recount for the court-ordered by-election in Madang Open. 

The recount saw Duban winning by 15,002 votes with Yama second on 13,557 votes.