Election petitions

The clock, not the case, decides most petitions

A petition is a statutory proceeding with a fixed timetable. Nothing that is lost in the first fortnight can be recovered later.

An election petition is not ordinary civil litigation conducted quickly. It is a statutory proceeding whose timetable is fixed before the petitioner has read the result, and every step — presentation, service, pleadings, pre-hearing, evidence — sits inside a window that closes whether or not the party is ready.

The consequence is that petitions are usually decided by preparation rather than by advocacy. The documents that will win the case are polling unit records, and they must be requested, collected and reconciled while counsel is still drafting the petition itself.

We advise clients contemplating a petition to make two decisions on the day of the result: whether the material exists to prove the ground they wish to plead, and who is accountable for collecting it. A petition brought on hope, in the expectation that evidence will surface during the hearing, tends to be struck out on a point that was visible at the start.

Nothing on this site is legal advice or creates a lawyer–client relationship.