President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has urge members of his party, the New Patriotic Party, who lost in last Tuesday’s Assin North by-elections, to keep their heads up as in elections there will surely be winners and losers.
While congratulating the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for winning the seat, President Akufo-Addo implored his Party to recognise that, “in a democracy, there are winners and losers and that we live to fight another day.”
“I urge members of my party, the New Patriotic Party, to keep their heads up, recognising that, in a democracy, there are winners and losers and that we live to fight another day.
The NPP, which once held the Assin North seat, President Akufo-Addo was confident and upbeat that, sooner rather than later, “Assin North will be blue again.”
The President, who took to his Facebook page Wednesday, said “Yesterday, Tuesday, 27th June 2023, Ghana’s democratic credentials were strengthened even further, following the conduct of peaceful and credible elections in the Assin North by-election. “
“I congratulate warmly the Chairperson and Members of the Electoral Commission, again, for a job well-done,” he stated.
The security services, President Akufo-Addo indicated, need to be commended for maintaining law and order during the holding of the elections; “as is the media for providing extensive coverage before, during and after the elections.”
James Gyakye Quayson, the parliamentary candidate of the National Democratic Congress, retained the Assin North seat for the NDC.
He garnered 17,245 votes (57.56%) to beat his main rival, Charles Opoku of the NPP who had 12,630 (42.15%) of the total votes cast while the candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana ( LPG), Bernice Enyonam Sefenu, got 87 votes, representing 0.29% of the total cast.
The total valid votes cast were 29,962 and the total number of votes cast was 30,418. Rejected ballots were 456 and the turnout was 74.23%. The constituency has 40,978 registered voters.
Quayson, in spite of a high court judgment that declared his election as an MP in the 2020 election unconstitutional, continued to hold himself as a Member of Parliament and attended sittings of the House and carrying out parliamentary duties.
Displeased with his actions, the petitioner in the high court action, Michael Ankomah-Nimfah, a resident of Assin North, filed an application at the Supreme Court seeking an order to injunct Quayson.
The reason sort for the injunction was that Gyakye Quayson, was not eligible to contest the 2020 Parliamentary Seat as he held at that time, dual citizenship (as a Ghanaian and as a Canadian), which frowns on the country’s Constitution.
Article 94 (2a) of the Ghana’s Constitution states that “a person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he – (a) owns allegiance to a country other than Ghana”.
The injunction order of the Supreme Court will remain in force until the final determination of the application seeking interpretation of Article 94 (2a).
The Cape Coast High Court restrained Mr Quayson from holding himself as the MP for Assin North on the NDC ticket.
On Wednesday 28 July 2021, Justice Kwasi Boakye also ordered that fresh parliamentary elections be held in the constituency.
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
