TWO Election Petition cases out of 99 cases have been withdrawn after the Petitioners opted to allow their respective MPs to continue till 2027.Petitioners for Goilala Open Alex Hoem Robert withdrew his case against MP Casmiro Aia on Monday and Petitioner for Western Highlands Regional Danny Gonol withdrew his case against Governor Wai Rapa on Tuesday after filing their cases before the Court of Disputed Returns last month. Hoem had filed is cases on 12/09/22 and Gonol on 18/09/22 after suspecting allegations of foul play by the winning candidates and Electoral Commission. These now leaves 97 Election Petitions to be deal with by Justice Joseph Yagi.Meanwhile, Minister for Justice and Attorney General Pila Niningi said that the progress of election petition cases depends on the administrative process of sorting out these petitions and allocating them to the judges, “Justice Joseph Yagi is currently undertaking the administrative process of the (99 court petition) cases that have been filed so far. Once He has completed the administrative process, then he will allocate the cases to other Judges. Then the other judges will proceed on presiding over these cases to finally hand down the results,” he said. Also, four electorates out of 97 electorates are facing three election petitions before the Court of Disputed Returns on allegations of foul play committed during the 2022 national elections, according to the National Court Registry Office And 11 electorates are facing two election petitions while the rest of the electorates are facing one election petition.These four electorates with three election petitions are Southern Highlands Provincial (SHP) seat, Madang Provincial seat, Alotau Open and Moresby Northeast. For SHP Governor William Powi is facing election petitions from Augustine Rapa, Bernard Peter Kaku, and Peter Nupiri. For Madang Governor Ramsey Pariwa is facing petitions from James Kias, Sir Peter Yama and Jerry Singirok. For Alotau Open MP Ricky Morris is facing Lisia Ilaibeni in two different petitions and at the same time facing Peter Neville. And for Moresby Northeast Open MP John Kaupa is facing Andapanga Baliawe, Diane Unagi Koiam and Peter Dominic. The 11 electorates facing two election petitions are Goroka Open. Western Provincial, Kompiam Ambum Open, Wabag Open, Moresby South Open, Wapenamanda Open, Samarai-Murua Open, Jiwaka Provincial, Porgera Paela Open, Abau Open and Kagua Erave Open.
