Franklin Cudjoe, the President of the policy think group Imani Africa, has said that the Assin North by-election should not have taken place.
Mr. Cudjoe said that James Gyakye Quayson, who was re-elected after being expelled from Parliament, was the victim of an electoral injustice.
“This election should not even have happened in the first place. It was a simple travesty of justice dolled out to Gyakye Quayson and we wasted money unnecessarily to conduct another by-election. And this whole thing is extremely shameful and we should not even have started this evil enterprise.
“It was an evil enterprise that should not have birthed but unfortunately, it was birthed and it birthed a stillborn. And a stillborn resulting in the defeat of the ruling party and of course, the rebirth of Quayson.”
Franklin Cudjoe
In order to prevent similar electoral failures in the future, Mr. Cudjoe also warned the ruling NPP to be open and honest with Ghanaians about the difficulties facing the nation.
“The NPP should be very afraid and must go back to the drawing board to restrategise. And if I was the NPP’s strategist, I would have called the candidates to come clean and tell the whole country where they think the country is currently and what they think they can do to take it out. Otherwise, they will be recording these kinds of defeats.”
Franklin Cudjoe
After the Supreme Court ruled on May 17 that Parliament must remove Gyakye Quayson’s name from its records, the Assin North seat became empty.
The Supreme Court determined that Mr. Quayson lacked the necessary qualifications to run in the Assin North Constituency for the 2020 parliamentary election on October 9, 2020. It was determined that Mr. Quayson had not provided proof that he had renounced his Canadian citizenship and that the Electoral Commission had allowed him to run for office without this proof.
On Tuesday, June 27, 2023, a by-election was held in Assin North, and James Gyakye Quayson of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) won re-election with a resounding victory. He defeated Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) with 17,245 votes, or 57.56 percent of the total votes cast.
However, the NPP and the NDC both accused the other of vote-buying during the by-election, which was rife with allegations. The NPP also denied the allegations made by certain National Democratic Congress observers that it shot at Assin Praso in an effort to scare away voters.
In the end, Mr. Quayson dedicated his win to the Ghanaian people and the justice system.
Do Not Accuse The NPP Of Vote-Buying
According to Michael Amoah Awuku, a prominent NPP member in the Ashanti Region and the municipal chief executive for Atwima Nwabiagya, the NDC should cease pretending that it did not buy votes in the recently held Assin North by-election.
Amoah Awuku claims that the NDC also participated in vote buying by providing some voters in the Assin North Constituency with sewing machines, hair dryers, fertilizer, and other commodities in order to support their candidate. He stated that both the NPP and the NDC need to find a solution to the allegations of vote buying.
“They (NDC) have done well, they have won the elections, we go back to our drawing board, we rethink our strategy again but they shouldn’t come here and say the NPP was sharing money. What about the sewing machines and others they were sharing as well?”
Michael Amoah Awuku
Additionally, He stated that the NDC should stop lying and telling lies because both parties have their own issues. He referred to the claim that the NPP bought votes as “ridiculous”. Giving money to electorates is a common practice, in his opinion.
