The Suva High Court has ruled against the Electoral Commission after they took the matter to court that their decisions on the appeals and objections were not taken into account by the Supervisor of Elections who went ahead with the candidates list draw on Saturday according to the list released on 19th August.
While delivering his ruling, Justice Kamal Kumar upheld the decisions made by the Supervisor of Elections.
He said Mohammed Saneem was right in consulting the Solicitor General on the matter.
He added that looking at the time constraints, the 72 hour period for decisions on appeals and objections ended at 4pm last Friday.
Justice Kumar said it is undisputed that the objection for Praveen Bala’s nomination as a candidate was received at 4pm on the 19th of August and the notification was given by the Electoral Commission at 7.47pm on the 22nd of August.
He said that since the notification of its decision by the commission was late even by only three hours 47 minutes, the Supervisor of Elections was bound to follow the commission’s directive as the commission breached the time limit
Judge Kumar said that if the commission was of the view that it needed more time or was not certain as to whether the time expired, it should have sought relief from the court.
He also said that the appeal decision relating to FLP’s proposed candidate, Steven Singh was also given in late by the commission.
Electoral Commission Chairman, Chen Bunn Young had announced on Friday that they had made their decision in favour of the People’s Democratic Party objection against FijiFirst candidate Praveen Bala which was upheld and the Fiji Labour Party appeal for their candidate Steven Singh who was allowed to contest the September election by the Electoral Commission.
The commission took legal advice from a firm of Solicitors in New Zealand before making their decision on Friday night.
However, the High Court struck out all the decisions.
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem confirmed he took legal advice twice from the Solicitor General before going ahead with the draw of the National Candidates list.
Meanwhile, Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, People’s Democratic Party President, Lynda Tabuya, One Fiji Party President, Filimoni Vosarogo and Social Democratic and Liberal Party candidates and officials were also present in court yesterday afternoon.
