A TRIAL date has been fixed to hear the petition case filed against Member of Parliament (MP) for Baegu/Asifola, Makario Tagini.
Justice Howard Lawry set 5th February 2025 when this petition case came before him on Thursday.
Mr Makario, also Minister of Forestry and Research, is facing trial for seven grounds or allegations of election bribery.
Rano & Company has taken over from L&L Lawyers to defend Minister Tagini in the trial.
Lloyd FitzReggie of Rano & Company has already informed the court of the change of legal representation and later proposed directions for parties to prepare the matter for trial.
He said Lily Ramo of Justlaw Attorneys who represents the petitioner agreed to all the directions made.
“Justice Lawry fixed a two days trial for the petition.
“In that, 5 February 2025 is for hearing of the evidence and that parties will return to court on 12 February 2025 for closing submissions,” Mr FitzReggie said.
The matter will return to court against on 29 January 2025 for a pre-trial conference.
The petitioner is Celsus Talifilu who was a runner up candidate in the Baegu/Asifola Constituency during the National General Election in April.
He initially filed 13 grounds of election bribery against Makario but later drop 3 grounds due to insufficient evidence.
Mr Makario then made an application to strike out all the grounds in the petition challenging the pleadings on the petitions where they say is frivolous and vexatious and cannot simply sustain the case at trial.
However, Justice Lawry had struck out three grounds and refused to strike out seven grounds, of which, he said is for trial.
Judge Lawry in his ruling on a previous court date had stated that power to strike out a proceeding is to be sparingly used and only in obvious cases the Court is reluctant to prevent a matter to proceed to trial when it is now known what the evidence will finally be.
“There is a public interest in allowing petitions to proceed to hearing so that all relevant material is before the Court before a decision is made.
Six of the election bribery allege payments have been made to voters by Mr Makario whilst one alleges a payment was made contrary to section 1265 of the Electoral Act by the agents of Mr Makario.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
Solomon Star, Honiara
