Principal Residence Case Against Boko Withdrawn
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday September 16, 2019 11:41
The candidate, John Siele had wanted Boko to be struck off the voters’ roll for the 2019 general elections at the constituency.
His contention was that Boko was not a principal resident of Phase 2 and his principal residence was Tlokweng where he lives with his family.
On Friday, Siele, through his attorney Sidney Pilane said: “The purpose of this application is to seek leave for withdrawal of stay and review application filed against Boko with costs on the ordinary scale.
“The reason of withdrawal is because the President of the Republic of Botswana has issued a writ of elections, read with section 28 (d) which stipulates that after the issue of any writ of election, the secretary shall not make any alteration to a roll to correct a patent error, having effect in relation to the constituency to which the writ relates, until the close of polling in the election to which the writ relates and thus this renders this application ineffective due to impracticality of the execution of it.”
Boko’s attorney, Dick Bayford did not oppose the withdrawal application. He only requested the court to award costs differently for the Attorney General (AG) and them.
Justice Michael Mothobi jokingly said “I have been researching about this case for a week. I am disappointed that there would not be arguments”.
Mothobi could not, however, agree with Bayford on the issue of costs regarding the AG stating that the matter is of public interest.
“Batswana should know that the High Court is their last resort. Otherwise, they would be discouraging to people to bringing these kinds of cases forward. Citizens should be allowed to bring these matters to the courts to seek clarity. Let’s leave AG out on costs awarding,” said Mothobi.