The Supreme Court has declared the election of Mr James Gyakye Quayson as Member of Parliament for the Assin North constituency as null and void.
This comes on the back of a 7 member panel of the Apex Court ruling that the MP does not qualify to continue holding himself out as a duly elected legislator in Ghana’s Parliament.
Mr Quayson was standing trial for the charges of deceit of a public officer, forgery of official documents, deliberately making a false declaration and perjury.
The state charged Mr Quayson to court on February 12,2022 with 5 counts being; deceit of a public officer, falsification of official documents, perjury, knowingly publishing false declaration .
The main trial started in July of 2022, when the lead counsel for the MP , Tsatsu Tsikata questioned the crediblity of witness statements and claims filed by the star witness of the prosecution , Richard Takyi Mensah who is a teacher by profession.
The trial judge presiding over the Cape Coast High Court ruled that the witness statements of the star witness of the prosecution team were relevant to the suit challenging the credibility of Mr Quayson’s election victory in 2020.
The decision of the High Court was not satisfactory to the lawyers of Mr Quayson , who then proceeded to the Supreme court for a ruling on the matter which sought to quash decision of the trial court .
The Supreme Court subsequently upheld the decisions ruled on in the trial court by dismissing the application filed by lawyers of the MP.
Presiding Judge Justice Jones Dotse on Wednesday, May 17, 2023 ruled that the Electoral Commission (EC) acted unconstitutionally in allowing him to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections without proof of him renouncing his Canadian Citizenship.
The Supreme Court has also directed that Parliament expunges the records of Mr Quayson from its books in earnest.
This is in the case filed by a resident of the constituency, one Michael Ankomah Nimfah.
Mr Nimfah had asked the court to rule that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 94(2)(a) of the Constitution, 1992 of Ghana at the time Mr Quayson filed his nomination form in October 2020 to contest the 2020 Parliamentary elections for the Assin North Constituency, he was not qualified to contest a member of Parliament.
This provision of the constitution provides that a person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana.
