By Saio Marrah
Justice Adrian Fisher has dismissed a case filed by the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) in which they asked the court to order the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) to provide the National Register of Voters to all political parties.
On Wednesday 5th July 2023, the judge ordered the first and second applicants, APC and its National Secretary General Lansana Dumbuya to jointly pay two thousand New Leones (NLe 2, 000) to the defendants.
Justice Fisher also noted in his judgment that “upon a review of the documents, it became apparent that the plaintiffs had not filed a statement of the case in accordance with the provisions of order 52 rule 6 sub-rule 2 of the High Court Rules 2007. The plaintiff was required to file the statement of case within seven (7) days of the application being filed.”
He added: “A failure to file a statement of the case in accordance with the said order is dealt with under order 52, rule 6, sub-rule 3, which mandates the court to dismiss the application for non-prosecution or to make any such order it considers appropriate”.
Justice Fisher informed the court about the failure of the applicants to attend the proceeding noting that lawyer Alie Theo Turay representing ECSL and the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh told the court that they had not been served with the statement of case.
Lawyer Turay applied for the court to order the applicants to pay ten thousand new Leones (NLe 10,000) to the defendants as a cost “for wasted for the day”.
The case was filed by Lawyer Dumbuya, Dr. Richard Conteh, and another member of the APC asking the High Court to order the ECSL boss to quash all regulations, manual rules, and procedures at “variance” with the Public Election Acts of 2022.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (07/07/23)
