The Cook Islands Democratic Party says it will appeal up to three of the petitions it filed against July's general election results which were thrown out by the High Court.
Transcript
The Cook Islands Democratic Party says it will appeal up to three of the petitions it filed against 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 has 13 seats in the 24-seat parliament.
Three petitions were withdrawn by the Democrats, five have been dismissed by the court and one is pending.
Mary Baines filed this report.
The Democratic Party leader, Wilkie Rasmussen, says he will appeal his loss of the Penrhyn seat. Mr Rasmussen says the Chief Justice, Thomas Weston, did not agree with the Democrat's petition to strike out 19 voters who were Australian residents but qualified to vote in the Cook Islands.
WILKIE RASMUSSEN: There's a constitutional argument about that, and of course arguments in relation to the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act. I've got an opinion of some worth from a Queens Counsel in New Zealand and it's very encouraging when it comes to the constitutional provisions that the court may have seen differently than we saw.
Mr Rasmussen says the party will also appeal the petition related to the Tengatangi-Areora-Ngatiarua constituency, held by Cook Island Party's Nandie Glassie. He disagrees with the court decision.
WILKIE RASMUSSEN: The judge who presided over that matter in law, he found that there was bribery but he didn't go as far as to say that it should be in the petititoner's favour.
The Cook Islands Party says the petitions against them have already been found to be baseless by the courts, and appealing them will just further delay government processes. The Finance Minister, Mark Brown, says his party just wants to get on with the job, which includes announcing this year's budget.
MARK BROWN: It's delaying a lot of the government process that we have in hand, such as the budget, it's delaying the approval of work projects the government would like to implement, and this is starting to cost the people in the country money. These delaying tactics that the opposition are using to try and again overthrow the decision that was made by the people during the elections.
Mr Brown says it is disgraceful that the Democrats are criticising the Chief Justice publicly on the decisions he has made, and the Law Society should take steps to censure them. He is also raising concerns about the costs involved with having petitions heard by the Court of Appeal.
MARK BROWN: If they choose to appeal again the decision of the court in the Court of Appeal, that could easily amount to another 200,000 dollars plus. And they'll be looking for someone to pay for those costs. And the question we're asking is, who is actually funding these legal costs for the Democratic Party?
But Mr Rasmussen says an appeal will not cost anywhere near 200,000 dollars, and that all legal costs are being funded within the party.
WILKIE RASMUSSEN: We've got lots of supporters who came forward and helped us with the petitions. We are and have always been in the better position financially than the Cook Islands Party. Whatever he has commented, he is not privy to what we have and to the details of what we have.
Mr Brown says parliament will sit before October the 9th, regardless of whether the petitions are disputed in the Court of Appeal.
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