BDP, IEC CASE CONTINUES TODAY The marathon case between Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Independant Electoral Commission (IEC) and Mr Whyte Marobela continues before Justice Terrence Rannoane at the Gaborone High Court this afternoon (November 13). The BDP made an urgent application for a review of the decision of the IEC to reject the name of its candidate, Mr Ignatius Moswaane for Francistown West constituency by-election. Justice Rannoane, on Tuesday, appealed to the BDP and Mr Marobela, who contested the party’s primary elections to finalise their dispute expeditiously in order to guarantee the rights of voters. Justice Rannoane made the appeal after he dismissed three of the four points of law that Mr Marobela, who was a respondent, together with the IEC had raised. The only point of law Justice Rannoane sustained was that no court had the power to re-open nomination period.The first dismissed point of law was that there was nothing on the ground to suggest that President Seretse Khama Ian Khama lacked authority to sign documents pertaining to his party. Mr Marobela’s second point of law was that it was wrong for the applicants, that is, the BDP to cite the office of a person without his name because there was no legal person in Botswana called The Secretary of IEC” Justice Rannoane said this point did not have merit. Thirdly, the judge said the office of the secretary of the IEC had a custodian and that custodian actively participated by answering affidavits on behalf of the commission. He said he wondered why the respondent wanted to change the status quo. He added that the citation of the secretary of the IEC was for the purposes of the present case. Mr Obonye Jonas, the lawyer for Mr Marobela, had earlier argued that there was no resolution that the BDP central committee ever made. He said the only thing that the party did was a power of attorney signed by President Khama, something was not supposed to be the case. Mr Jonas submitted that President Khama had no authority or was entitled to have signed such a paper, adding that the capacity by the BDP to sue the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had not been established. He had also submitted that BDP was not allowed to cite the office of the person without his name and that what was stated in the letters of notice was the office of the Secretary of the IEC not Mr Gabriel Seeletso and as such, there was no legal person in Botswana called the ‘Secretary of the IEC’. He submitted that the application to sue the IEC by the BDP was to seek re-opening of the nomination date and that there was no court that had the power to re-open the nomination date, saying this is a presidential function. He argued that if the court could do so, it would be impinging on the decision of the president which was entrenched in the statutes, not from the constitution of any political party. He further said the head of state could not use the same law to serve the interest of his political organisation, regardless of his position. In response, the lawyer representing the BDP, Mr Antrobus Mark, said the application was not to re-open the nominations but to review the decision by the IEC to refuse registering their Francistown West candidate, Mr Moswaane. He argued that there was no reason for the President to be cited in the matter because there was no attempt by the President to change the writ of election. He submitted that this was an urgent application because the date of the bye-election was nearer and that citing the office of the secretary of the IEC without mentioning his name was not a problem. Mr Mark said the Secretary of the IEC was appointed under the Electoral Commission’s Act and as such, he was charged with the business of the commission on daily basis. He also submitted that it was the office of the person which they cited and that it would be irrelevant by the respondents to say that his name had not been mentioned. Meanwhile, Justice Rannoane refused to excuse himself from the case citing ignorance on the side of the respondents.This was after Mr Jonas had submitted that his client Mr Marobela, had instructed him to call for his recusal, citing a likelihood of bias and partisan in the matter. Mr Jonas had also said Justice Rannoane was serving the interest of President Khama because the latter appointed the former the chairperson of the latest Delimitation Commission. However, Justice Rannoane criticised the statement saying he was appointed by the Judicial Service Commission to become the chairperson of the Delimitation Commission. He said he wondered how an eminent lawyer like Mr Jonas could make such a statement. This case emanated from Mr Marobela’s petition of the High Court, complaining that the results of the BDP primary elections for Francistown West constituency be declared null and void because they had irregularities. At the time of writing this article, the applicants, that is, the BDP, were still motivating their application to review the decision by the IEC to refuse to register Mr Moswaane, the victor in the primary elections. The by-election, which follows the death of Mr Tshelang Masisi, is scheduled for November 23. Ends Source : BOPA
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 10:51:57 +0000
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