Court cancels Assin North election; by-election in the offing

The Cape Coast High Court has canceled the 2020 Parliamentary election held in the Assin North constituency which saw the opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) candidate Joe Gyakye Quayson being elected as Member of Parliament.

The Court presided over by Justice Kwasi Boakye on Wednesday, July 28, 2021 ordered for a fresh election to be conducted in the constituency.

The court has also restrained Joe Gyaakye Quayson from holding himself as the MP for Assin North constituency.

The petitioner, Michael Ankomah Nimfah, contended that Quayson held dual citizenship as a Ghanaian and a Canadian at the time of his election, and therefore must be restrained from performing the duties of a Member of Parliament.

Election petition

Mr Quayson polled 17,498 votes as against 14,793 by the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP’s) Ms Abena Durowaa Mensah, in the December 7, 2020 parliamentary election.

However, on December 30, 2020, a resident of Assin North, Mr Michael Ankomah-Nimfah, filed a parliamentary election petition at the Cape Coast High Court challenging the eligibility of Mr Quayson to be a Member of Parliament.

He contended that the MP was not eligible on the basis that at the time he (Quayson) filed his nomination to contest as a parliamentary candidate, he was still a citizen of Canada.