James Gyakye Quayson
The Supreme Court has provided detailed reasons why it directed Parliament to strike out the name of James Gyakye Quayson from its record as Member of the House representing the people of Assin North Constituency in the Central Region.
According to the apex court, Mr. Quayson did not meet the constitutional requirement for contesting for the seat of Parliament as he owed allegiance to another country at the time of picking up his nomination form contrary to Article 94 (2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution.
“We sate without any equivocation that Article 94 (2)(a) means that to be qualified to be a Member of Parliament, a citizen of Ghana must not hold any other citizenship at the time when nominations are opened by the Electoral Commission for registration of candidates for election as Members of Parliament,” the court held in its interpretation of the constitutional article.
Mr. Quayson was booted out of Parliament last week by a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court presided over by Justice Jones Dotse and assisted by Justices Nene Amegatcher, Mariama Owusu, Gertrude Torkonoo, Henrietta Mensah-Bonsu, Yonny Kulendi and Barbara Ackah-Yensu, which held that his election was unconstitutional, and subsequently directed Parliament to expunge his name from its records.
It was the opinion of the court that the Electoral Commission (EC) allowing him to contest the election without showing evidence of renunciation of his Canadian citizenship was unconstitutional.
The Supreme Court gave the order in its judgment on a writ filed by Michael Ankomah-Nimfah before the court seeking the interpretation of Article 94 (2) (a) of the 1992 Constitution, which deals with eligibility of a person to contest as an MP in Ghana.
Parliament has already notified the Electoral Commission of the occurrence of a vacancy in the Assin North Constituency necessitated by the judgment of the Supreme Court which directed Parliament to expunge Mr. Quayson’s name out of its records.
Mr. Quayson has declared his intension to contest the election, and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has declared its support for the deposed MP in what some political analyst consider as risk that could have dire consequences for the party.
Supreme Court Reasons
The Supreme, in its full reason for pushing the deposed MP out of Parliament, said it is clear on a reading of Article 94 (2) (a) and 94 (3) together with Article 8 of Act 527, prior to its amendment that the framers of the Constitution intended to shield the holding of membership of Parliament away from non-citizens.
“Following the amendment of Article 8 of Act 527 which allowed dual citizenship, the lawmakers reiterated their position that persons who hold dual citizenship will still not qualify to be Members of Parliament and will not qualify to hold certain sensitive echelons of the Public Service,” the unanimous decision written by Justice Nene Amegatcher pointed out.
The judgment said while the plaintiff averred that between October 2 and 5, 2020 when Mr. Quayson filed his nomination to contest the parliamentary seat, he had not received his certificate of renunciation. Mr. Quayson said he had received the certificate in November prior to the election on December 7 and his taking of the Oath of Allegiance on January 7, 2021.
It was the decision of the court that since citizenship is a matter of law determined by the law and regulatory mechanisms of states, it is not a valid legal submission that a unilateral statement of renunciation of citizenship of another country should be recognised as severance of allegiance from that country without a legal document backing it.
“This court has to, therefore, reiterate its earlier conclusion that the qualification of holding only Ghanaian citizenship must be present at the time of nomination, and not any date thereafter – in this case October 9, 2020,” the court held.
The court clarified that “by the requirements of Article 8 as amended by Act 527, and Article 94 (2) (a), any person, who has obtained citizenship of another country other than Ghana, and who files for nomination with the Electoral Commission to contest for election as a Member of Parliament will not be qualified to contest for elections unless and until they show a record from the alternate State that they no longer hold the citizenship of that State as at the date of filing their nominations with the Electoral Commission.”
It added that, “Since the 1st defendant (Mr. Quayson) had not received his certificate of renunciation as a Canadian citizen as of October 9, 2020, then he was not qualified to be a Member of Parliament at the time that he filed his nomination papers, at the time he stood for elections, and at the time he was declared as elected Member of Parliament, because he owed allegiance to another country as at October 9, 2020, the date when he should have satisfied the qualification criteria.”
BY Gibril Abdul Razak