Chairman of the Taskforce for the winning candidate for East Are'are Constituency on Malaita has defended the victory of Andrew Hanaria as MP for the constituency.
Chairman John Keniapisia says MP Hanaria is ready to counter the proposed petition.Three losing candidates Aliki Ha'apio, Michael Ahikau and Abraham Namokari will jointly lodge the petition in the High Court.
Petition Chairman, Mr Ha'apio says they are challenging the conduct of Mr Hanaria and his associates after the closure of the nomination period up until polling day.
But Mr Keniapisia says Mr Ha'apio is just making excuses because he was ill prepared to contest the recent national general elections.
"He was ill prepared to contest the elections, soon after former MP Huni'ehu died he announced that the former MP had appointed him to continue with his programme, he said he would take over from the Late MP and run for the elections," said Keniapisia.
"In Solomon Islands politics, how can you be certain that you will have a following if you don't have a relationship with the people...nothing happen like that in Solomon Islands."