The Majority Chief Whip in Parliament, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, has lauded the cancellation of the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency of the Central Region by the Cape Coast High Court.
He believes the ruling vindicates the New Patriotic Party, which fiercely contested the seat during the polls.
“We’ve been proven right, and it just goes to prove a point that sometimes however emotional you are, you still have to listen to logic and stronger arguments because from day one we made it stronger and even intimated to our colleague the effects of his flouting of a court order,” he said in a Citi News interview on Wednesday, July 28, 2021.
The Cape Coast High court on Wednesday declared the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election null and void.
In his judgement, Justice Boakye upheld that, the National Democratic Congress’ 2020 parliamentary candidate for the constituency, Joe Gyakye Quayson, breached the provisions of the constitution with regard to dual citizenship as he was also a citizen of Canada at the time of filing his nomination to contest in the parliamentary race.
The court thus ordered for a fresh election to be held in the constituency.
“I am not surprised, I must be honest about the court ruling. It was something I was expecting, and I knew it was going to get to this. So I am happy the rule of law and our democratic process is deepened by this ruling, and it is good for us that people cannot short-change the will of the people because if you do, the court will reverse the decision,” Annoh-Dompreh said in the interview.
On what the ruling means for the governing New Patriotic Party govrnment, Mr. Annoh-Dompreh said the party must prosecute an agenda to win the seat should a by-election be conducted.
“We still have to go for a by-election and a by-election is not done until it is done, and we have to prosecute an agenda and win that election, and even after winning we still have to reach out to the other side to prosecute the government’s agenda for the good of the people.”
Background
After Joe Gyakye Quayson was declared winner in the constituency’s election, he was dragged to court by Michael Ankomah-Nimfa, a resident of Assin Bereku in the Central Region.
Mr. Akomah-Ninfa filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to annul the declaration of Mr. James Gyakye Quayson as the Member of Parliament for the Assin North constituency for owing allegiance to Canada.
In November last year, a group calling itself ‘Concerned Citizens of Assin North’ petitioned the Electoral Commission in the Central Region to withdraw the candidature of Mr. Quayson, arguing that he owes allegiance to Canada.
According to Article 94 (2) (a) of the 1992 constitution of Ghana, “A person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he or she – (a) owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.”
The National Democratic Congress (NDC), had insisted that their MP is “a full citizen of Ghana who owes no allegiance whatsoever to any other country. He is a Ghanaian in law and in fact, qualifies to be a Member of Parliament according to the laws of Ghana.”
