Nine election challenges have been lodged with the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Patū Tiava’asu’e Falefatu Sapolu will hear all the challenges today
This was confirmed by the Ministry of Justice senior Registrar Ve’a Fa’atasi.
The challenges are on the eligibility of the candidates through their services – monotaga – to the villages or districts they are standing for next month’s general elections.
The first case mentioned in Court today, was the challenge by Fiame Naomi Mata’afa against Fiaola Iosua Lole who is the only other candidate challenging Fiame for the Lotofaga constituency. The claim against Fiaola is based on a previous traffic conviction.
Fiame is a senior Cabinet Minister and has represented Lotofaga for over 20 years.
Chief Justice Patū adjourned the matter to Wednesday this week for the respondent to file a defence statement.
However, that was later changed to Tuesday after the Chief Justice was informed that there were more cases filed before 12.00pm Monday.
The registration of candidates closed midday last Friday and the election challenges closed today at 12.00pm.
The challenges are supposed to clear the eligibility of candidates before the polls 4 March even though election petitions based on malpractices such as bribery and treating are to be filed after the results are declared