Opposition United Democratic Party’s petition against the 4 December presidential election has been thrown out by the Supreme Court.
The development came on Tuesday morning, with the justices of the top court also ordering UDP to pay D100,000 to President Barrow.
The justices held that UDP failed to comply with a rule around election petition, as argued in one motion by lawyers for President Adama Barrow.
UDP failed to comply with Rule 11 which says when filing an election petition, the petitioner must provide a notice of the presentation of a petition and of the nature of the proposed security accompanied by a copy of the petition. This also must be served by the petitioner on the respondent within five days after the presentation, exclusively of the day of presentation.
UDP leader Darboe dismissed the decision of the Supreme Court saying UDP did not lose because of the merit of the case. Instead he said the striking out of the petition was done out of a technicality.
But one lawyer said: “The Petitioner was way off. With their years in practice, I am quite sure they were aware of this rule but took their chances. So the case lost even before it started. That explains the amount of court costs awarded to President Elect Barrow…a whopping GMD100K.”
