Andrew Amoako Asiamah
The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that its Member of Parliament (MP) for Fomena in the Ashanti Region, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, who has filed to contest as an independent candidate, has lost his membership of the party as well as his seat in Parliament.
According to a statement signed and released by the party’s General Secretary, John Boadu yesterday, the Fomena MP has automatically vacated his seat in Parliament per the party’s Constitution.
He said the party is, therefore, taking immediate steps to inform the Speaker of Parliament of the above circumstances for an appropriate action to be taken against him.
The General Secretary quoted Article 3(9) of the NPP’s constitution which says that “A member of Parliament shall vacate his seat in Parliament if he leaves the party of which he was a member at the time of his election to parliament to join another party or seeks to remain in Parliament as an Independent member” to buttress his point.
Additionally, the statement said the party has severed relationship with all its members who filed to contest the upcoming general election as independent candidates.
According to John Boadu, members of the party who are contesting as independent candidates have also automatically forfeited their membership of the party pursuant to Article 3(9) of the party’s constitution.
The General Secretary said by the same constitutional injunction, any member of the party who will decide to support or campaign for an independent parliamentary candidate ahead of the forthcoming general elections also automatically forfeits his or her membership of the NPP.
The party, through the press release, highly commended all the members of the party who had contemplated to go independent but reconsidered their decision in respect of the supreme interest of the party.
“Such display of loyalty and patriotism to the party can never go unnoticed, and the party duly acknowledges same,” the General Secretary said.
The party particularly saluted Mercy Adu-Gyamfi, popularly known as Ama Sey, the MP for Akwatia Constituency, for “listening to wise counsel” and deciding not to file as independent candidate but to rather support the party’s 2020 parliamentary candidate for the Akwatia Constituency, Ernest Yaw Kumi, to retain the Akwatia seat for the NPP.
The party also congratulated all its 275 parliamentary candidates who successfully filed their nominations with the Electoral Commission to contest in the 2020 parliamentary elections and wished them the best in the elections.
“The NPP is undoubtedly on course to maintaining its overwhelming majority seats in the next Parliament Insha Allahu,” the General Secretary pointed out.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr