The Cape Coast High Court has issued a judicial order restraining James Gyakye Quayson, MP-Elect for Assin North from holding himself as such.
This comes on the back of a petition filed by a one Michael Ankomah-Nimfa of Assin Bereku that the MP-Elect was of double nationality by not renouncing his Canadian citizenship at the time of filing to contest in the just ended general elections.
According to the petitioner, this is a situation which is a contravention of Article 94 (2) (a) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which states:
“A person shall not be qualified to be a member of Parliament if he owes allegiance to a country other than Ghana”
The petitioner therefore urged the court to declare Mr. James Gyakye Quayson’s MP-Elect status null and void.
According to the gazetted Parliamentary results by the Electoral Commission (EC), James Gyakye Quayson of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) polled 17,498 votes representing 54.19% with Abena Durowaa Mensah of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) polling 14,793 representing 45.81% of valid votes cast.
This development will see the NDC lose an MP as the Country prepares to transition into the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic with only 136 NDC MP-Elects eligible to be sworn in as against NPPs 137.
In effect, James Gyakye Quayson will not be able to partake in the vote for the Speaker of the 8th Parliament.
More to follow…
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