Assin North MP Stripped… Court Orders Fresh Election

A Cape Coast High Court has nullified the election of Joe Gyaakye Quayson as the MP for Assin North constituency in the Central region.
The court presided over by Justice Kwasi Boakye, ordered for fresh election to elect a new MP for the area.
Joe Gyaakye Quayson’s election had been challenged by a resident claiming that at the time of filing to contest for the constituency he was still holding a Canadian citizenship, having failed to renounced it.
According to the petitioner Mark Nti the MP at the time of filing to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections, had not renounced his Canadian citizenship and was therefore ineligible to contest.
According to him at the close of nominations on the 9th of October, the Assin North MP had not renounced his Canadian citizenship making him a dual citizen which the constitution does not allow.
He explained the Assin North MP it a complete violation of Article 94 (2a) asking the court to declare his election null and void.
Justice Kwasi Boakye in his judgement on Wednesday, said the MP, Joe Gyaakye Quayson violated constitutional provisions and other statutory provisions that guide Ghana’s elections.
According to the judge, on the capacity of the petitioner to maintain an action against the Assin North MP, the MP’s challenge of his capacity was overruled. He said the petitioner had the capacity and the petition was competent.
The Court explained that its jurisdiction could be invoked in an election petition when the EC conducts a parliamentary election and declares the results of the contest, arguing that the Court’s jurisdiction was properly invoked.
Justice Boakye ruled that nothing precludes a petitioner from invoking the High Court’s original jurisdiction and, therefore, dismissed this challenge by Joe Gyaakye Quayson.
The judge said the facts of the matter were not in doubt. That is on December 17, 2019, the Assin North MP applied to renounce his Canadian citizenship.
Between October 5th and 9th filed to contest the Parliamentary elections. That he got his renunciation certificate on November 26, 2020.
The argument of the Assin North MP was that the delay in getting his certificate was purely administrative and arose out of the two-month lockdown as a result of the pandemic.
To this, the court said, based on the certificate the MP submitted in his affidavit in response to the petition, he only ceased to be a Canadian citizen on November 26, 2020, and not any period before or at the time of filing to contest the elections.
The court indicated that the evidence on the face of the certificate destroys the case of the Assin North MP.
“It would be a bad precedent and a cancerous tumour in Ghana’s legal jurisprudence. Thus, he ceased to be a Canadian citizen after November 26, 2020,” the judge said.
On the issue of whether or not the election of the Assin North MP is null and void, the judge said the MP violated the constitutional provisions and other statutory provisions that guide Ghana’s elections making his election null and void.