James Gyakye Quayson, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party’s parliamentary candidate for the Assin North by-election has emerged victorious in Tuesday’s polls.
At the end of the by-election on June 27, 2023, Mr. Quayson polled 17,245 votes representing 57.56 percent of the total votes cast to beat Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG).
Charles Opoku polled 12,630 votes representing 42.15 percent of the total votes cast in the hotly contested by-election while the LPG’s Bernice Enyonam Sefenu polled a paltry 87 votes (0.29%).
Gyakye Quayson, who won the seat in the 2020 polls with 17,498 votes, was kicked out of Parliament for having dual citizenship prior to filing his nomination forms.
The Assin North seat became vacant after the Supreme Court ordered Parliament to expunge Gyakye Quayson’s name from its records in a ruling on May 17.
The Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Quayson was not qualified to contest the 2020 parliamentary election in the Assin North Constituency at the time he filed his nomination forms on October 9, 2020.
It found that Mr. Quayson had not shown evidence of renouncing his Canadian citizenship and that the Electoral Commission had granted him permission to contest the election without this evidence.
The Court further ruled that Mr. Quayson’s election as Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency was unconstitutional.
The 7-member judge panel in a unanimous ruling stated that “the qualification of holding only Ghanaian citizenship must be present at the time of nomination, and not any date thereafter.”
A criminal case immediately commenced against him after he was kicked out of Parliament and is currently facing charges of perjury and forgery.
The NDC fielded Gyakye Quayson in the by-election in what the party said was to correct an injustice.
A day before the poll, Mr. Quayson said he was confident of winning emphasizing that his good works for the people of Assin North will propel him ahead of his competitors.
