Mwakwere Chirau Ali v Ayub Juma Mwakwesi & 1 other

Section 19(4) mandates expeditious, priority hearing of election disputes, so parties cannot be permitted to frustrate expeditious disposal. Section 22 permits summary rejection or listing for hearing; once the court has listed the petition, it has exercised that discretion. Rule 22 is procedural, while section 22 is substantive law, and the inherent residuary power to admit applications in the course of trial is exercised only in the interests of justice.

The hearing date had been fixed long before the Court of Appeal struck out the returning officer's name. The appellants' course unnecessarily prolonged proceedings and evidenced an attempt to buy time so that the petition would be rendered meaningless by effluxion of time. Allowing the appeal would reward the attempt to prevent conclusion of the petition and negate the principle of expeditious disposal.

The Court adopted Fletcher Moulton L.J.'s speech in Dyson v Attorney General: a party may be stopped at an interlocutory stage only if the action is wantonly brought without a shadow of an excuse, or where permitting it to proceed through its ordinary stages would vex a party when the action was baseless. The petition was not such a case, and the appellants could still raise their complaints during the petition hearing.