22 Sep 2014

Cooks Democrats to appeal petitions

5:47 am on 22 September 2014

The Cook Islands Democratic Party says it will appeal up to three of the petitions it filed against last July's general election results which were thrown out by the High Court.

It lodged a total of nine petitions against the ruling Cook Islands Party, which won 13 seats in a 24-member parliament.

Three petitions were withdrawn by the Democrats, five have been dismissed by the court and one is pending.

The Democrat's leader, Wilkie Rasmussen, says he will appeal against his loss of the Penryhn seat.

"For mine, that's the Penryhn constituency, the appeal's on points of law to do with the 19 voters, their votes were allowed, and they reside normally in Australia. There are some consitutitonal arguments about that, and of course arguments in relation to the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act."

Wilkie Rasmussen says the party will also appeal against the Tengatangi-Areora-Ngatiarua decision.