The Rhinos are getting their shot at shutting down the election in the Yukon.

In Yukon Supreme Court this morning, Justice Leigh Gower agreed to hear the request of Big Ben Mahony to stop the current election and have a new one ordered with his name on the ballot.

Since the election is set to happen next Monday, Gower said he would have a decision by the end of today in case either Mahony or the federal government wanted to appeal the verdict.

Mahony wanted to run in the Yukon as a Rhino candidate. The Rhino party, which was Canada's satirical party for two decades, is now officially defunct.

But Mahony and his campaign manager, Brian Godzilla Salmi (legally known as Sa Tan), wanted to bring the Rhino spirit back to life, starting just in the Yukon.

However, when Mahony went to file his nomination papers on the day of the deadline, he and Salmi had been unable to get a certified accountant to agree to be their auditor. They had only looked on that day.

Elections Canada requires all candidates to have a certified accountant as an auditor. Since Mahony could not find an accountant, he was not allowed to enter the race.

Mahony and Salmi filed a challenge under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms last week, arguing Mahony's right to run in an election was taken away by Elections Canada's rule.

The pair also asked the court for an injunction to stop the election, an order that Elections Canada appoint an auditor for Mahony since the charter challenge can't be dealt with right away and an order that another election be held in the Yukon soon.

The first court appearance for this matter was on Monday. Before the hearing began, Salmi expected the injunction to be heard and Gower to deliver a verdict on it by today.

However, as proceedings began on Monday morning, lawyers for the Attorney General of Canada, Brett Webber and Suzanne Duncan, asked Gower to completely throw out both requests made by the Rhinos.

The government lawyers argued Mahony's documents did not make clear what the government was responding to in court.

Duncan told the court there were procedural flaws in the documents filed by Mahony and Salmi and for that reason they should be tossed out.

While Gower said some of it was not clear, he told Duncan the court must allow arguments that are not of the best procedural quality from people who are representing themselves if the crux of the argument is there.

If the whole case was not thrown out, then Duncan and Webber wanted an adjournment to prepare a proper case.

At the end of Monday, Gower said he would return today to give a decision on the adjournment.

This morning, Gower agreed to let Salmi and Mahony proceed and because 'time is obviously of the essence,' he would not grant the federal lawyers any more time to prepare for arguments on the injunction.

However, Gower did agree to adjourn the charter challenge until July 19 at the earliest, because the law calls for 30 days to prepare for constitutional questions.

Salmi and Mahony did not want to get into the challenge this week anyway. They just wanted to deal with the injunction.

However, part of the injunction application was a request for the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada to hand over 10 cases of Yukon Brewing Company beer to Mahony.

Gower tossed that request out because it was 'clearly frivolous'.

After Gower's decision to proceed, Salmi, who's been speaking for Mahony in court because of his familiarity with the law (he filed a similar challenge for the B.C. provincial election in 2001), said he wasn't surprised Gower permitted the hearing on the injunction to proceed.

'Clearly, the bids for adjournment were cheap, desperate bids for clemency,' said Salmi.

He accused the federal lawyers of not spending time to prepare for the actual argument and instead looked for a way to wiggle out of the case.

On Monday, Duncan said if Mahony won his charter challenge well after the election, the results could be overturned and another election with him on the ballot could be held.

Salmi argued the case had to go ahead this week because if the election is held, Mahony will not be able to get on the ballot since there is nothing in the Elections Act which allows for a new vote to be held if a rule in the law is found to be unconstitutional.

Salmi said the only way to give Mahony his chance is to stop the election.

After this morning's proceedings, Salmi said he was somewhat worried by Gower's comment that he would give a decision today to allow time for Salmi and Mahony to appeal if needed.

Salmi pointed out Monday he wanted to get the case dealt with quickly if Mahony lost, so there would be an opportunity to appeal.

If the election is stopped, only the vote in the Yukon would be halted. The vote in the other 307 ridings would go ahead.

Arguments on the injunction were set to begin at 1 p.m. today.