Mahama Ayariga, the representative for Bawku Central, has criticized the Supreme Court for its decision regarding James Gyakye Quayson’s election to Parliament as the Assin North Constituency lawmaker.

The formal written judgment from Ghana’s Supreme Court, which rendered its decision on May 17th, was made public on June 6th.

The former Education Minister stated in response to the written statement that Gyakye Quayson had no allegiance to any other nation as of the moment of his oath-taking as a member of parliament.

He said that qualifies him to serve because the 1992 Constitution did not specify a deadline for when someone loses their eligibility to serve as an MP, owing to having dual citizenship.

“The Supreme Court reversed and went back to when he was filing nomination to ask, ‘At the time you were filing nominations, were you owing allegiance to another country? On the date of elections, were you owing allegiance to another country?
“For me, I think that the two earlier timelines are not the responsibility of the Supreme Court. Those are the responsibility of the Electoral Commission and statutes.”
Mahama Ayariga

The Bawku Central MP claimed that the Supreme Court should have made it plain that the constitution was unclear about when a person must relinquish their citizenship, in order to accept employment in Ghana.

The Supreme Court decided that James Gyakye Quayson’s name should be removed from all parliamentary records. Since then, a by-election for Assin North has been called, and Gyakye Quayson has laced up his boots to run on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) ticket once more.

Under the guise of reviewing Justice Gertrude Torkornoo’s portion of the written judgment in the Assin North MP case, the minority members of the Appointments Committee of Parliament had postponed a decision over her appointment as Chief Justice. Mr. Ayariga informed her of this, during her vetting.

It is unknown whether the opposition NDC will ask for a review of the unanimous ruling rendered by Ghana’s highest court.

Supreme Court’s Decision Conflicts With The Law

Sammy Gyamfi, the NDC’s communications officer, referred to the Supreme Court’s decision in the Assin North case as a mockery of justice.

As a Ghanaian, Mr. Gyamfi said that reading the 35-page judgment, which ordered Parliament to remove Gyakye Quayson’s name from its records, was saddening because it showed the Supreme Court’s full and blatant disdain for the law.

“The 35-page judgment of the Supreme Court has only confirmed our [the NDC’s] position that the decision taken by the Supreme Court to annul the election of Gyakye Quayson is nothing but a travesty of justice.
“You read the entire judgment, and you get sad as a Ghanaian that clear positions of law in this country were clearly disregarded by the Supreme Court in arriving at the conclusion that they arrived at.”
Sammy Gyamfi

According to the NDC’s communications officer, the Supreme Court’s decision regarding Mr. Quayson’s eligibility for the 2020 Assin North parliamentary election, is in variance with the law that the court is supposed to uphold and interpret.

He emphasized the phrase “at the time of his election” and claimed that section 20 (b) of the representation of the people’s PNDC Law 284 is crystal clear that a parliamentary election may only be called off, if the candidate was unqualified at the time of the election.

“The Supreme Court says that the Assin North parliamentary elections were held on December 7, 2020, and at the time of that election, Gyakye Quayson had received the renunciation of his Canadian citizenship on November 26, 2020, ten clear days before the election.
“But the Supreme Court is saying that even though he was qualified before the election, he should have been qualified before his nomination and that he submitted his nomination forms on October 9. And that since his certificate of renunciation came on November 26, 2020, he was not qualified by October 9 when he submitted his form, but the law says he should be qualified at the time of the election.”
Sammy Gyamfi