He was ousted on 12 grounds of the 35 that petitioner Alfred Manase had raised in his petition which was determined and proven to be true by the National Court.
The decision means that Polye who is minister for civil aviation, transport and works, is out of parliament as member for Kandep. A by-election will have to be conducted for the seat.
The crux of petitioner Manase’s Court challenge was that the whole 2007 election process in the Kandep open seat had been compromised when no other candidate came close to Polye, who was declared on first preferential votes alone.
National Court Judge Greg Lay presided over the election petition for almost a year. It is believed to be one of the longest running election petitions in the newly introduced limited preferential voting system and saw 101 witnesses called with 136 electoral documents tendered.
In a detailed 185-page decision Lay outlined his findings and reasons for disturbing the 2007 election result.
“Most of the results of this case have been determined not by fine points of law, but by the difficult question of who to believe in circumstances where the evidence for the petitioner and the evidence for the respondent directly contradicted each other and the witnesses were calling each other liars,” Lay said.
“No doubt there were some very good liars in the witness box. However, some witnesses may simply have been confused by what they saw and misinterpreted or drew the wrong conclusion, or mistakenly recollected what occurred. Some witnesses may have been so convinced that what others told them occurred did in fact occur, that they felt justified in coming to court and giving the story as their own evidence. I have therefore for the most part simply said that I prefer one body of evidence over the other.”
Polye will decide whether to appeal against the decision by the Court of Disputed Returns that removed him from his Kandep seat.
Polye told the Post-Courier on Saturday that although he was deeply disappointed, he accepted the court’s verdict because he had much respect for the judiciary.
He said his lawyers were studying the court decision and would advise him whether to appeal or go straight to the by-election.
Polye, who relinquished the civil aviation ministry three days after the tragic Kokoda plane crash, also expressed his sympathies and condolences to the families of the victims.
Polye said his supporters had urged him to go straight to the by-election to prove that his historic win in the 2007 national elections was not a fluke. He retained his Kandep seat by an overwhelming majority under the newly introduced preferential voting system.
Polye said he would make his decision after his lawyers had studied the court decision and advised him on the “most appropriate” step to take.
“If my lawyers find that there is a miscarriage of justice then we will appeal. “If not then we will go straight to the by-election. I will make my decision on Monday,” he said.
In the meantime Polye has appealed for peace and calm in Enga Province.
“I want my supporters to be very mature and understanding about this situation and not to take the law into their own hands. “I am also appealing to the supporters of the plaintiff not to provoke trouble by over-celebrating his court victory.”
He added that the court decision came as a shock to the Government but he had the full support of Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and ministers, the National Alliance Party and its coalition partners.
Polye said he was confident that he would return to Parliament as the duly elected Member for Kandep and would retain his place in the Government.
