BY JENNIFER KUSAPA
THE High Court will look at better ways to manage election petitions and is urging lawyers to cooperate and work towards achieving that goal.
Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer said the 2014 election petitions were filed and were allocated with the hope that it will be completed as soon as possible, however at that time there was a shortage of judges on the bench.
He said unfortunately the hearing have taken longer than expected.
Sir Albert said the point remains and the issue of delay must be addressed for future election petitions.
“I am looking at other ways of better managing and controlling election petitions including the appointment of two to three Commissioners of the High Court to specifically deal with election petitions,” Sir Albert said.
He said the activity is not cheap and require full government support to provide funding to enable the courts in engaging extra judicial officers specifically to hear election petitions.
“Our goal for future election petitions would be to have all such petitions completed within six to 12 months, a bold aim but I will be asking lawyers to cooperate and work towards delivering that outcome.”
Therefore Sir Albert said that the courts noble goal is to have cases completed within reasonable time and judgments delivered timely.
Out of the three outstanding election petition cases one of the cases has been strike out by the High Court last Friday in which only two cases are currently remaining before court.
