WESTLAND ELECTION

Hokitika Guardian, 3 December 1925, Page 2

WESTLAND ELECTION

PETITION FILED YESTERDAY. A petition in respect to the Westland Election in which Air Seddon was declared elected on tho casting vote of the Returning Officer, was lodged late yesterday afternoon with Mr Coles, by special messenger from Groymouth. No particulars of the grounds of the petition were available hist right fi nr the Returning Officer, jhe document was sent by register’d post to-day to the Registrar of the Supreme Court at Wellington. On receipt of the petition the Registrar advises the Returning Officer, who notifies :!.e i-ciitioncr. The '.alter must then supply the respondent \\ itil a copy of the petition. Meanwhile the petitioner must advertise the text of the petition in some newspaper cir< ulaling in the electorate within seven days of lodging the petition. It will 1m for the Chief Justiic to set up the Election Court, consisting of two Judges of the Supreme Court to hear the petition in due course. It is understood both sides have heen preparing for the possibilities of a px?tition for some time, and lwth arc likely to ke fortified with grounds for attacking various individual votes which will he the subject for enquiry before the Election Court when set up. It promises to ho therefore a case of diamond cut diamond. With the holidays approaching and tho Christinas vacation of the Supreme Court in sight, the Election Court may not sit until next February.