The Supreme Court today dismissed an application by the Attorney General to set aside orders for the Opposition’s substantive hearing on August 1.
This is according to a statement from the Opposition.
The finding of the court was two-fold.
The court found that the notice of motion, by the second intervener, the Attorney General filed and moved on Monday this week, was incompetent.
Despite the fact that it was incompetent, the Court went on to rule on the merits of the notice of motion, and the court found that in terms of the merits of the motion, there were no compelling reasons advanced by the second intervener to set aside the orders of 19 July.
The substantive matter will now be heard on Thursday, the 1st of August.
Meantime, Opposition Leader Douglas Tomuriesa and the Opposition’s MPs welcomed the decision, declaring that this was wonderful news for the people of Papua New Guinea.
Mr Tomuriesa said that the court systems were respected by the Opposition and believed that it would be fair not only for them but for the people.
“Today’s ruling is in favour of the people of Papua New Guinea. We all know the substantive matter will be heard tomorrow (Thursday 1st August), and so we would not like to get deeper into it but allow our lawyers to deal with it.”
“We want to announce to the nation that our fight for justice and our fight to make certain the voices of majority of Papua New Guineans must be heard.”
He commended the Opposition’s legal team and thanked the four men bench in the Supreme Court who ruled on two of the matters in favour of the Opposition.
Mr Tomuriesa called on all Papua New Guineas to remain calm and allow the courts to make the rulings.
Adding that the Opposition was confident that the course they were running would eventuate and eventually come to the dreams and aspirations that the decisions were right in due course.
Mr Tomuriesa thanked all Opposition MPs and looked forward to the substantive matter to be heard in the Supreme Court.