James Gyakye Quayson’s woes begun with his declaration of intent to contest the Assin North Parliamentary elections in 2020 when 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 was a Canadian citizen.
Despite the petition, Mr Quayson managed to sail through to contest representing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 parliamentary polls and got 17,498 votes representing (55.21%) while Abena Durowaa Mensah, the New Patriotic Party’s candidate had 14,193 representing (44.79%).
Following Mr. Quayson’s victory, Michael Ankomah-Nimfa, a resident of Assin Bereku in the Central Region, filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to annul the declaration of him as the MP of Assin North.
The Cape Coast High Court on July 28, 2021, upheld Mr. Ankomah-Nimfa’s petition and declared the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency as null and void because Mr. Quayson had breached the provisions of the constitution with regard to dual citizenship and ordered the Electoral Commission (EC), a defendant in the case, to conduct fresh election.
Not pleased with the High Court decision, Mr. Quayson appealed at the Court of Appeal, Cape Coast, but even before the court made pronouncement on the matter, Richard Takyi-Mensah, filed a motion at the Supreme Court, and asked a seven-member panel presided over by Justice Jones Dotse to order the lawmaker to stop holding himself as MP.
On February 9, 2022, when the case was called before the Supreme Court, the judges directed the Registrar of the Court to make a direct service on Mr Quayson as an individual.
He came out on April 12, 2022, to describe the case against him as frivolous, vexatious and abuse of court processes. He also described the petitioner’s case as “blatant forum shopping” and which should not be countenanced by the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court on July 12, 2022, adjourned the case indefinitely but however granted permission to Mr. Quayson, to file written submissions supporting his motion to strike out the writ seeking constitutional interpretation.
Mr. Quayson in the first month of 2023 filed an application praying the Supreme Court to review its ruling dismissing an application for certiorari on a High Court decision concerning the criminal charges he was facing at the High Court but the application was thrown out.
Former president and the flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama during a tour of the Assin North constituency in March 2023 expressed worry over the delay of the case and intimated “It is a blight on our system of justice that for such a long time, the Assin North people have been deprived a representation in Parliament.”
And three years after the court case started, the Supreme Court on May 17 concluded its proceedings on the case and directed Parliament to expunge his name from its records.
