MEMBER of Parliament (MP) for West Guadalcanal Anthony Veke has lost his bid to strike out a petition filed against him by former MP Moses Garu.
Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer made his judgement in the High Court yesterday by refusing the application by L & L Lawyers on behalf of Veke to dismiss allegations related to election bribery.
Mr. J. To’ofilu is representing the former MP Moses Garu (petitioner) to defend the case No. 274 of 2019 to dismiss the election bribery allegation filed by L & L Lawyers, on behalf of MP Veke.
Garu was unseated by former Guadalcanal Province Premier Veke during the April 3rd 2019 National General Election (NGE) with a difference of more than a thousand votes.
Mr Garu then resorted by filing a petition case alleging that Veke allegedly bribed people to vote him and was also campaigning outside of the campaign period allowed by the Electoral Act for any intending candidate to campaign.
Veke then filed a case on 3rd of July to dismiss the allegation but unfortunately Sir Palmer ruled that the petition against Veke must proceed before the court.
Therefore his application to dismiss the allegation was refused.
Yesterday, former project officer for West Guadalcanal Constituency Peter Toli told Solomon Star that constituents are waiting for updates and progress on the petition case against Veke.
“And I’m very happy the case now will go for pre-trial so we let the law deals with it,” said Mr. Toli.
By AATAI J. LAUNGI
