A lawyer and member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr. Alex Segbefia, is confident the party will retain the Assin North seat after a Cape Coast High Court annulled the election and ordered a rerun.
Speaking to Citi News, he said “regardless of the shenanigans that are going on, whether we go through an appeal process, whether we decide to have a by-election… that seat will remain an NDC seat whichever court position we take.”
The court annulled the election because the NDC’s Joe Gyaakye Quayson breached the provisions of the constitution with regard to dual citizenship.
With reference to the alleged shenanigans, Dr. Segbefia said NDC had wanted a stay of execution in the case. But he claims that there were attempts to frustrate Mr. Quayson’s defence.
“We didn’t put in a final statement, and we knew we were going to put in a final statement to get the appeal,” he said.
The Minority in Parliament has since said it will file a legal challenge to appeal the decision of the Cape Coast High Court.
The Central Regional Secretary of the NPP, Takyi Mensah, has also activated a criminal case he field against Mr. Quayson in January this year.
The complaint filed at the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service is to investigate, among other things, Mr. Quayson’s participation in the election of the Speaker of Parliament, although the High Court had barred Mr. Quayson from holding himself as an MP at the time.
Background
Michael Ankomah-Nimfa, a resident of Assin Bereku in the Central Region, filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to annul the declaration of Mr. Quayson as the MP Assin North.
In November 2020, a group calling itself ‘Concerned Citizens of Assin North’ petitioned the Electoral Commission in the Central Region to withdraw the candidature of Mr. Quayson, arguing that he owes allegiance to Canada.
The NDC maintained that the MP did not owe allegiance whatsoever to any other country.
The Assin North MP applied to renounce his Canadian citizenship. December 17, 2019, but administrative processes to concluded ended after he had filed to contest the Parliamentary elections.
He eventually got his renunciation certificate on November 26, 2020.
