Triumph for Tuasulia after high court strikes out petition

The MP for West Kwara’ae Alfred Mosuna Tuasulia is now a free man after the high court throw out the petition against him.

Tuasulia is one of the 26 sitting MPs facing petition following April’s election. The petition was filed at the high court by three of the losing candidates in the West Kwara’ae constituency: Fred Ramoli, Clement Oikali and Sam Alasia Lidimani.

In delivering his judgement on Tuasulia’s application for a strike out of the petition, Puisne Judge Augustine Sylver Aulanga said: “The second respondent’s (Tuasulia’s) application to strike out the joint election petition filed on 30′ May 2024 is granted.Consequently, it is struck out accordingly. It is struck out as aresult of not being signed by all the petitioners when it was presented and filed at the High Court.”

Aulanga said the joint EP (election petition) was filed on time as and has satisfied section 108 (3) of the Electoral Act 2018 (as amended). However, it was only signed by Oikali and Alasia whilst the third petitioner, Ramoli, did not sign the EP. He added that the EP therefore was not signed by all the three petitioners.

The court was also told that besides the EP, the petitioners also filed Recognisance (Form 6) and Notice of Agent (Form 9) on 30′”May 2024, both documents only signed by Alasia and not the other two petitioners despite it was a joint petition case.  Believing that the EP and the other supporting documents were valid, the petitioners then filed sworn statements in support of the petition.

On 5th July 2024, the second respondent, Tuasiulia, filed an application to strike out the joint EP on two main grounds. First; the EP was not signed by all three petitioners at the time it was filed at the high court. This offends rule 6 (4) of the Electoral Act Petition Rules 2019 that requires the EP, in the case of joint petition, to be signed by all the three petitioning individuals before it can be considered a valid EP. His lawyer Billy Titiulu argued it that was a fatal error that cannot be cured by any amendment and must render the EP null and void.

Second; the Recognisance (Form 6) document was not signed by all the Petitioners as well. It was only signed by one of them, Alasia. Since it was a joint petition, rule 10 (1)- (4) of the Electoral Act Petition Rules 2019 require all the petitioners to give security for payment of costs of the petition. By having Alasia alone signing the recognizance when infact it requires all the petitioners to sign and give security of costs before a commissioner of Oaths, that amounted to a false representation to the Court.

Based on these grounds, the EP should be struck out entirely, Tuasulia’s lawyer Titiulu submitted.

Aulanga ruled that the Tuasilia’s application to strike out the joint election petition is struck out accordingly.

“It is struck out as a result of not being signed by all the petitioners when it was presented and filed at the High Court,” he said.

Furthermore, Aulanga stated that the application for leave to amend the petition is refused forthwith.

“I order cost of this hearing to be paid by the petitioners,” he said.

The ruling means that Tuasualia is the second MP to win his petition after the MP for North Guadalcanal and Minister of Health Dr Paulson Bosawai’s case was struck out two weeks ago.

Speaking to SBMOnline, Tuasulia said with the petition now settled he is looking forward to doing his work as an MP and representing his people of West Kwara’ae.

He appeals to those who took the petition against him to come forward and work with him to develop their constituency.

“I open the door for them to come and work with me develop our constituency,” said Tuasulia.