The Electoral Commission of Ghana is expected to commence processes to hold a by-election in Assin North Constituency in the Central region.
This follows a ruling by the Cape Coast High Court nullifying the 2020 parliamentary elections in the constituency.
The Court presided by Justice Kwasi Boakye, ordered for fresh elections to be conducted in the constituency.
The court restrained the Assin North NDC Member of Parliament James Gyekye Quayson from holding himself as the MP for the Constituency.
The petitioner, Michael Ankomah Nimfah, filed a case against the elected MP James Gyekye Quayson for holding dual citizenship as a Ghanaian and a Canadian at the time of his election, and therefore must be restrained from performing the duties of a Member of Parliament which was upheld by the Court in a judgment delivered on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
Per the decision of the Court, the Electoral Commission of Ghana must open a new nomination and fix a date for the by-election to be conducted.
NDC James Gyakye Quayson polled 17,498, 55.21%. ABENA DUROWAA MENSAH of NPP, 14,193 representing 44.79% during the 2020 Parliamentary election.
The respondent Gyakye Quayson is however likely to go to the Supreme Court for better interpretation of the law on Dua citizenship.
Ahead of the ruling, the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress Sammy Gyamfi accused the registrar at the Cape Coast High Court Utaz Hamza of colluding with the governing NPP to manipulate court processes against the Assin North MP James Gyaakye Quayson.
“The NDC can see a deliberate and evil conspiracy between the Court’s registry and the NPP to manipulate the court processes and decision in their favor, all to steal the Assin North seat from the NDC. And this begs the question as to whether or not the trial judge is privy or party to this shameful conduct of the Court’s registry.
“It is very shameful to say the least, that Judicial officers who are supposed to exhibit independence, impartiality and professionalism in their work have compromised their integrity and are lending themselves as pliant tools for the manipulation of judicial processes by the desperate and despotic NPP/Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government,” he wrote on Facebook.
Source: Mybrytfmonline.com/Obed Ansah
