Andrew Amoako Asiamah
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Fomena, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, has been removed from Parliament after his seat was declared vacant by the Speaker, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye.
The Speaker said Mr. Asiamah, having broken ranks with the party that sponsored him to Parliament and subsequently forfeited his membership by running as an independent candidate for the constituency, could no longer hold himself as the MP for the area.
Giving his ruling on a petition sent to his office by the NPP for the seat to be declared vacant, Prof. Oquaye invoked Article 97(1) of the Constitution, which provides that “a Member of Parliament shall forfeit his seat in Parliament if he leaves his party 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 support the decision arrived at.
According to him, the NPP Constitution, of which the MP subscribes to, provides in Article 39(1) that “a member who stands as independent candidate against constitutionally elected member of the party or who joins or declares his or her support for another political party or for an independent candidate when the party has sponsored a candidate in the general or by-election, automatically forfeits his or her membership of the party.”
The Speaker indicated that he had received a written response from the beleaguered MP, who had at the moment filed his candidature with the Electoral Commission (EC) to contest this year’s election as an independent candidate.
He argued that this move clearly showed that Mr. Asiamah “is seeking or seeks to leave his party,” and that “this automatically triggers forfeiture of his party membership.”
“He cannot have the desires to live by taking a step toward filing as an independent candidate and yet be a member of the party. The step taken to contest against his party automatically triggers forfeiture of membership,” he emphasized.
Speaker Oquaye averred that the MP, having forfeited his membership of the party on which ticket he was elected to Parliament, the operative language of the Constitution, was that “he shall, which is mandatory, vacate his seat in Parliament.”
“Going by the purposeful interpretation of the present law, constructive actions on the part of the MP are important.
“In all intents and purposes, he is no longer a member of the NPP and has pronounced publicly as an independent candidate and has filed his papers to compete against the party’s official candidate as an independent candidate on December 7, 2020,” he said.
“On that occasion, this current Parliament was, is and will still be sitting to operate as an official Parliament of the Republic of Ghana. We shall not have a situation adopted freely by any sitting MP where he or she will be campaigning openly against the party that he or she still represents in Parliament and yet ridiculously stands against it.
“No purposeful interpretation of law will allow such ridicule to be. Furthermore, after December 7, 2020, when Parliament is still in session on January 7, 2021, how does an MP act as an elected independent MP and at the same time an NPP MP if he should win the election?” the speaker quizzed.
Prof. Oquaye said “this lacuna of a ridiculous situation is not what is anticipated under the 1992 Constitution,” and ruled that in the circumstances, it had been determined that the conduct of Andrew Amoako Asiamah meant he had vacated his seat in Parliament.”
“Accordingly, we will bring to the notice of the Electoral Commission for the necessary action to be taken in accordance with the law,” he concluded.
The NPP, on October 13, 2020, wrote to the Speaker to trigger the provisions of Article 97 (1) g for the seat of the Fomena MP to be declared vacant after announcing publicly that he was running to retain the seat as an independent candidate.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House