THE election petition against the 2018 General Election results is yet to be served personally on the remaining 27 respondents.
This has been confirmed to Fiji Times Online by Filimoni Vosarogo who is the lawyer acting for SODELPA leader Sitiveni Rabuka and NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad.
Mr Vosarogo said bailiffs tried to serve the petitions on the respondents but were stopped earlier today.
“From what I gather, the bailiffs went to Level 9 of Suvavou House to serve the petitions. They’ve been stopped or refused entrance to reasons unknown to me.” He said.
A Fiji Times team is at the Suvavou House and has gathered that most of the 27 respondents are at Level 9 of the building. The team was unable to establish why the Respondents were there and why the bailiffs were not allowed to serve the petition on them.
The petition against the results of the 2018 General Election had to be served personally in 24 hours on the 28 named respondents, the Court of Disputed Returns directed yesterday.
The direction was made when the Court refused an application by Filimoni Vosarogo of Mamlakah Lawyers, the solicitor for the petitioners, for an order for substituted service allowing the petition to be served on Mr Sayed-Khaiyum as the registered officer of the FijiFirst party on behalf of the 27 members of the party who are named as respondents.
The application was made on the basis that it was impracticable to serve all the respondents individually given that the Constitution requires the court to hear and give its decision on the petition within 21 days of when it was filed on Monday.
So far Mr Vosarogo said they only managed to serve the petition to the Supervisor of Elections.
The respondents, he said, were 26 candidates of the general elections who are now members of Parliament, while the 29th respondent was an unsuccessful candidate, but there were allegations in the petition related to him.
The matter was called before Madam Justice Anjala Wati and Justice Kamal Kumar.
It will be called again tomorrow to check on service and for further directions.
