Election petitioners in Papua New Guinea were this week caught off guard when the judge responsible for all election petitions quit the role.
The Post Courier paper reports that National and Supreme Court judge Justice Mark Sevua has ceased all responsibility and referred all queries to the Chief Justice.
Justice Sevua made this known while presiding over three election petition cases.
He did not give any reasons.
Among the election petition cases that were to go for directional hearing yesterday and were deferred to a later date included Moses Murray against Prime Minister Sir Michael and Speaker of Parliament Jeffrey Nape's case.
