MEMBER of Parliament for East Guadalcanal Bradley Tovosia has retained his seat after the election petition case against him was dismissed last Friday.
Justice Rex Faukona dismissed the petition case against Tovosia after finding no evidence of bribery against him.
Tovosia’s runner up in last April National General Election (NGE), Timothy Manepuria filed the petition against Tovosia, who won by 2,501 votes.
Manepuria polled 1,484 votes while Tovosia won with 3,985 ballots.
A trial was conducted before Justice Faukona on two grounds of bribery.
One of the bribery incidents relates to an incident at Marau, where it was alleged Tovosia through an agent promised to give $2,000 to a woman.
The woman when giving evidence however said that was not true.
Tovosia in his defence also stated that he never knew the woman and only met her when she came to give her evidence in court.
The second ground of bribery was said to have occurred when Tovosia gave $100 to an 80-year-old woman.
In defence Tovosia stated that the woman’s son is one of his campaigners and it was he who invited Tovosia to his home.
While there, the woman gave a shell money to Tovosia and in exchange for the gift Tovosia gave her $100, which is a matter of custom.
The court after the trial found that the campaigner is already Tovosia’s supporter.
It also found that there are no reason for Tovosia to bribe his campaigner’s mum to vote, plus she is also an elderly person who has no capacity to go and cast her vote.
Wilson Rano of Rano & Company represented Tovosia while Manepuria was represented by Private lawyer James Apaniai.
Meanwhile, MP for Savo/Russell Dickson Mua and MP for Gela, Bartholomew Parapolo are awaiting ruling of their cases.
Mua’s case was taken up against him by his runner up, Oliver Salopuka.
Salopuka polled 1,924 votes while Mua won the election by 2,027 votes.
Ms Douglas who polled 2,122 votes in the Gela seat filed the petition against her winning rival, Parapolo, who received 2,512 votes.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
