The government has delayed its response to an election petition at the high court and demanded that the parties make their full identifications.
A group of political parties sued the electoral commission last month over the schedule of the general elections in June. They wanted the court to issue an order to cancel the process.
The government team representing the electoral commission says the petition bears the name of the SPLM-DC only but no other political parties have been listed.
“The petition is not proper in one point and that is, the petition speaks of several petitioners. There’s only one petitioner that we recognize and that is the SPLM-DC,” said Jeremiah Swaka, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Justice.
“The other petitioners are said to be ‘others’. But in a normal situation, ‘others’ should have also been named so that the respondent will be able to identify them.”
Chief Justice Chan Reech Madut asked the other political parties to submit their full names and adjourned the sitting to Tuesday.
The political parties say they will continue with the petition at the court even after the government postponed the polls.