facts that should have been stated in the affidavit accompanying the petition are given. To respond to the allegations and the evidence contained in the said affidavits assembled in five months, the appellants are given a mere 20 days. Within that short time, the appellants had the onerous task of looking for witnesses to rebut each and every allegation and piece of evidence in the respondent’s pleadings in a situation where the enthusiasm with which the elections were held, six months before, had long died down making it extremely difficult for the appellants to organize witnesses and gather the necessary evidence from them. Is this the kind of fair hearing and fair trial envisaged under Article 28 of our Constitution, the other laws of the land and the fundamental principles of natural justice? To answer that question we shall first look at what may be regarded as constituting fair hearing and fair trial. Examining the question what is a Fair Trial, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in its Basic Guide to Legal Standards and Practice, March 2000 states thus:“The right to a Fair Trial is applicable to both the determination of an individual’s rights and duties in suits at law and with respect to the determination of any criminal charge against him/her. The term “suit at law” refers to various types of court proceedings including administrative proceedings for example because the concept of a suit at law has been interpreted as hinging on the nature of the right involved rather than the status of one of the parties………… The standards against which a trial is to be assessed in terms of fairness are numerous, complex and consistently evolving. They may constitute binding obligations that are included in human rights treaties to which the state is a party. But they may also be found in documents which, though not formally binding, can be taken to express the direction in which the law is evolving…… The right to fair hearing encompasses the procedural and other guarantees…. The single most important