Constitutional Court allows Nationalist Party to correct appeal after error

The Constitutional Court has allowed the Nationalist Party to correct an appeal which it had filed following an error in the dates listed. The mistakes referred to a previous judgement delivered by the First Hall of the Civil Court earlier this year regarding the 2013 electoral result. The case was first instituted in March 2013 against the Electoral Commission, with the PN claiming that irregularities had occurred in the counting process in the 8th and 13th electoral districts.

The First Hall of the Civil Court ruled in the PN’s favour on 5 February, 2015 and an appeal was lodged by the Labour Party before the Constitutional Court which, in turn, annulled the judgement and ordered that the case be remitted to the first court to be heard again.

The original judge the case had been assigned to had abstained from hearing the case and it was given to another judge who delivered her judgement on 26 May this year. Four appeals from the 26 May judgement were lodged principally by the Attorney General and the other defendants, while the PN filed four replies and four incidental appeals.

In each of its incidental appeals the PN referred to the original judgement of 5 February, 2015 and not to the 26 May judgement. The PN therefore requested the Constitutional Court to allow it to amend its appeals. In yesterday’s judgement, the Constitutional Court, presided over by Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri and judges Giannino Caruana Demajo and Noel Cuschieri, ruled that it was clear that the appeals of the PN had referred to the 26 May judgement and not the 5 February, 2015 judgement.

The requested amendment, said the court, fell within the parameters of the law and the amendment could therefore be allowed.

The court ordered the correction to take place and that the corrected documents be served upon all the parties to the suit.