consequences of undisputed facts, on the basis of a technical pleading point, especially where petitioners allege no prejudice. He commended the approach in the case Sonia Grant v Sutherland Madeiros and Others.35 [58] Grant v Madeiros is a case from Bermuda. It arose because the petitioner, Grant, challenged the election of the respondent, Madeiros, as Mayor of the city of Hamilton, Bermuda. Ground CJ noted36 that the rules of pleading are strictly applied to election petitions and that changes or amendments are not allowed to petitions after the time for filing a petition has expired. The Chief Justice stated, in effect, that he could have dismissed her case on a pleadings point. However, he then decided that lest it was thought wrong to dispose of the case on the pleading point alone, he would go on to consider the merits of the case. He did so and dismissed the petition on its merits. [59] Mr. Guthrie enjoined us to remember that election petitions are not ordinary litigation inter partes because they affect the electorate as a whole and not just the parties. While he accepted that the respondents were entitled to know the case against them in order to meet it, he submitted that issues should not be removed from the court’s consideration by insistence on technical points of pleading. This, he said, would not promote the just resolution of the dispute. It would also be contrary to the interests of the parties and the electorate, who are entitled to an election according to law and to a true result. I merely point to my observations in paragraphs 55 and 56 of this judgment. I am confirmed in the view that an issue for trial must be clearly raised on the pleadings. [60] Inasmuch as the issue of late voting was not clearly raised in the petitions, the trial judge erred when she so found and made it a live issue. This conclusion bears out the correctness of the approach by Redhead J, (as he then was) when a similar procedural issue arose in Halstead. 35 36 [2007] Bda. L.R. 21. At paragraph 19 of the Judgment. 28 During the course of the trial,