By Francis H. Murray
The Sierra Leone Court of Appeal has dismissed the election petition case of ten members of the main opposition All Peoples Congress Party (APC) and ordered that they pay Le50, 000,000 costs citing non-compliance on the part of the appellants.
The decision comes after the appellants failed in their separate election petitions cases brought against them in the High Court which was followed by them filing an appeal against the decision(s) to the Court of Appeal.
The matter was brought up by Hon. Osman A. Timbo and Nine (9) others, following a High Court decision that saw the former members of parliament thrown out of the House of Representatives on the grounds of electoral inconsistences.
The Court of Appeal is presided over by Supreme Court judge Justice Sengu Koroma, Court of Appeal judge Ansumana Ivan Sesay and Justice Tonya Barnette.
Lawyer Ady Macauley who is among the legal team for the appellants said there are certain applications that had been filed in the Supreme Court in respect of these appellants for which they filed a motion for stay of proceedings.
He told the court that they will not comply with the Appeal Court’s direction which required that they file synopsis on the request of their clients.
Representing the defendant, Lawyer Musa Mewa argued that the appellants should have filed their synopsis on the 9th of August, 2020, which they have failed to do. He added that the inaction of the appellants in effect, amounted to disobedience to the order of the court.
Relying on Section 78 (5) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No. 6 of 1991 and Rule 24 of the Court of Appeal Rules 1985, Mewa submitted that the conduct also amounted to a withdrawal of the Appeal and therefore applied that the said Appeal be dismissed with substantial costs.
The court noted that the Appellants in the matter (Hon. A Timbo and 9 others) had failed, refused or neglected to comply with the order of the Court of Appeal dated 29th July 2020 and had failed to convince the court about the reasons for their non-compliance.
In their unanimous ruling, the Justices noted that, “in the circumstances, this Appeal and the related Appeals are hereby struck out with costs of Five Million Leones (5,000,000) each,costs to be borne by each of the Appellants.’’
In May last year, the High Court overturned election results of 10 APC Members of Parliament. Nine of them were immediately replaced by members of the ruling SLPP who finished second in those races. A rerun of the election in constituency 110 was ordered by Justice Kumba Kamanda-the tenth seat located in the Western area.
The issues in those cases border on election violence, irregularities with the voting and counting processes and some candidates receiving salaries from the Consolidated Revenue Fund within the year before the elections, contrary to the regulations.
The appellants were represented by Lawyers Africanus Sesay, Ady Macauley and Salmata Bah.
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