By Rocky Issou
The election petition filed by the unsuccessful candidate for the 2022 National General Election Peter Wararu against Yangoru-Saussia MP and Minister for International Trade and Investment Richard Maru and the Electoral Commission was dismissed by the National Court of Waigani, on Thursday 22nd of June 2023.
Speaking in the boardroom in his Ministerial Office, the Yangoru-Saussia MP did not hold back his frustrations. According to Richard Maru, this is the third time he has been challenged by the petitioner.
“Wararu is a serial petitioner with unmeritorious and baseless accusations and allegations. He filed three unsuccessful petitions so far in the three elections that I won- 2012, 2017 and 2022. All these three petitions have been found by the Courts that they lacked merit and were thrown out at competency stages. Those petitions never went to trial. I thought the petitioner would have learnt his lessons based on what happened in the 2012 and 2017 petitions and stop pursuing baseless allegations, but the filing of the recent petition showed otherwise,” said Minister Maru.
According to Minister Maru, he along with the Electoral Commission each filed objections on May 17, 2023 questioning the competency of Peter Wararu’s petition, claiming it had missing crucial components.
The MP stated that the petition was a waste of time for everyone depriving the people from getting services from the local member.
“The petition took up a lot of my valuable time to focus on my responsibilities to my electorate and the state. Now that it is over, I will return to my electorate and work aggressively to provide improved services for my people of Yangoru-Saussia and also carry out my responsibilities as a State Minister” Maru added.
“My three in a row election petition wins have proven very conclusively by three independent court decisions and three different judges that I have won the last three elections. I have not been involved in any foul play, corruption, and all the wild claims that have been made against me. It has also proven conclusively that in the last three elections that I have been elected as MP for Yangoru-Sausia Open, the Electoral Commission had been conducting a fair and clean elections in my electorate. All these unnecessary petitions by desperate losing candidates, led by Peter Wararu have been proven again and again that they have no basis and I have won the elections fairly.”
Maru also highlighted that there needs to be a change in the laws for those who use the courts with no proper evidence to claim their cases and those that lose due to lack of proper evidence should be held accountable.
The Yangoru-Saussia MP revealed that next week he will return back to the district where some major projects will be announced, such as opening of a school, and the visitation to certain bridges that need to be upgraded.
