The National Court has dismissed an application filed by Madang Governor, Ramsey Pariwa, to dismiss an election petition against him by former governor, Peter Yama.
Pariwa through his lawyer, Martin Kombri, wanted to dismiss the petition alleging grounds of abuse of process.
The application was filed arguing that the election petition Rules and the Organic Law were breached when the petition was prepared by the lawyers assisting the petitioner and not by the petitioner (Mr Yama) himself.
A similar application was earlier filed by Pariwa as well raising series of allegations against Yama’s lawyer Ben Lomai of Lomai Attorney but the application was dismissed.
This time, Governor Pariwa through his lawyer Kombri are again seeking to dismiss the petition on grounds of abuse of process.
However, Justice Joseph Yagi refused the application and set the trial date on May 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023.
Lawyer Ben Lomai, Counsel for Yama, said while such applications raised issues of competency and should be dealt with at the competency stage.
Lomai further said the application was also misconceived since lawyers as counsels, act on instructions of their clients when filing cases such as election petitions.
He also explained that the Election Petition Rule 22 provided for a lawyer or counsel to seek leave of court to act for a petitioner, but that does not mean that a petitioner should file his or her own petition.
Lomai said a petitioner has got the right to instruct a solicitor or any law firm to file a petition on his or her behalf.
Justice Yagi after hearing both arguments made the ruling and dismissed the application.