Court dismisses Dekena election petition review

​An election petition review in the Supreme Court, filed by Dawa Lucas Dekena over the dismissal of his petition in the National Court, disputing the return of Nick Kuman as Gumini MP, has been dismissed.

A three-man Supreme Court bench heard the review on June 27 and dismissed the review today for being incompetent.

The full court found that there were additional grounds, filed in the substantive review.

Those grounds were not included in the leave stage of the review.

Justice Ambeng Kandakasi said challenging an election result is serious and the onus is on the petitioner to get the pleadings right, failure to do so has resulted in the dismissal of many good petitions.

Author: 
Sally Pokiton