MEMBER of Parliament (MP) for Northwest Guadalcanal, Francis Sade will on October 16 know if the petition case filed against him will be dismissed or not.
This followed the hearing of the application to strike out the petition before Judge Howard Lawry on Thursday.
Having heard submissions and responses from both counsels, Judge Lawry adjourned the case to October 16 for ruling.
Former MP for Northwest Guadalcanal, Bodo Dettke filed the petition after he failed to retain the constituency’s parliamentary seat in the April 17 National General Election.
He initially alleged grounds of Interfering with Voting, Undue influence and three counts of Bribery in the petition.
However, he and his lawyer Gabriel Suri of Suri’s Law Practice later withdrew all grounds, except for one count of Bribery and one count of Interfering with Voting.
The petitioner included the Returning Officer and Presiding Officer as the Second Respondent and Third Respondent in this petition.
MP Sade and his lawyer made the application to strike out the petition on grounds that pleading is frivolous and vexatious, asserting that it is defective and cannot sustain a case.
They claim the way that the petitioner plead the petition does not capture every element of the grounds of offences alleged and the evidence filed is insufficient to meet the required standard.
MP Sade who is the Deputy Speaker of Parliament is engaging Rano & Company.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
Solomon Star, Honiara
