30 Jul 2008

Samoa Party hires overseas lawyer to fight electoral act clause

3:22 pm on 30 July 2008

A New Zealand barrister, Peter Andrew, is representing the Samoa Party in its claim that section 105 of the Electoral Act is unconstitutional.

The section says only candidates who polled at least half of the total votes in a parliamentary election can file an election petition.

The Samoa Party lawyer told the Supreme Court that section 105 is unconstitutional and there is no such law in any Pacific Islands country or New Zealand or Australia.

Mr Andrew says the rights of some Samoa Party members to file election petitions after the 2006 general election were excluded and therefore the section must be declared void.