Kanawu Radio number 1 news portal
Court orders fresh elections in Assin North
James Gyekye Quayson facing criminal charges
The Appeal Court in Cape Coast has struck out a suit filed by the Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyekye Quayson, challenging a High Court’s ruling against his eligibility as MP.
A Cape Coast High Court in 2021 declared that James Gyekye Quayson cannot hold himself as MP for Assin North and thus ordered for the conduct of a new election in the area.
This was after a suit had been filed to challenge the eligibility of Gyekye Quayson to contest in the December 7, 2020, parliamentary election which he had won.
However efforts by the embattled MP to challenge the High Court’s ruling at the Appeal Court was on Tuesday, March 22, 2022, struck out by the court.
The court, arriving at the decision, noted that Mr Quayson had failed to file his written submission within the stipulated period allowed under the Court of Appeal Rules, 1997 (C.I. 19).
His written statement was to set clear his reasons for filing the appeal against the High Court’s ruling.
The court in ruling relied on Rule 20 (1) and (2) of C.I. 19 which stipulates that, “an appellant before the Court of Appeal shall within three weeks of filing a notice of appeal, file written submissions.
“Where the appellant does not file the written submissions of his case in accordance with sub-rule (1), the appeal shall be considered to have been struck out and the Registrar shall inform the parties accordingly.”
James Gyekye Quayson in the 2020 parliamentary election polled 17,498 votes against 14,793 by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Abena Durowaa Mensah to emerge winner of the Assin North contest.
However a resident of the area, Ankomah-Nimfah, on December 30, 2020, filed a suit at the Cape Coast High Court challenging his eligibility to contest in the election.
The plaintiff had asked the court to declare the Assin North poll null and void on the basis that the MP owed allegiance to another country other than Ghana, contrary to Article 94(2) of the 1992 Constitution.
The court in its ruling also took the view that James Gyekye Quayson, as of the time of filing his nomination, had not renounced his Canadian citizenship and, therefore, was not qualified to become a legislator.
The court, presided over by Justice Kwasi Boakye, therefore ordered the Electoral Commission to organise a new election in the constituency.
Aside his effort to overturn the High Court’s ruling, there are currently multiple legal actions against the embattled MP challenging his continuous stay in Parliament.
The state has also commenced criminal proceedings against him for false declaration in his attempt to become an MP.
