Assin North MP trial: Resign and contest again – Prof. Kwaku Asare advises Gyakye Quayson

A US-based Ghanaian Professor, Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare has called on the embattled Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson to resign and allow for fresh elections to be held in his constituency.

This follows a majority decision by the apex court injuncting the Mr Gyakye Quayson from going to Parliament.

In its ruling on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, the Lord Justices ordered the MP not to carry out his parliamentary duties anymore until the final determination of the suit against him.

It will be recalled that the Cape Coast High Court in July 2021, annulled the Assin North Parliamentary elections when it ruled that Mr Quayson owed allegiance to another country other than Ghana at the time of filing his nomination forms to contest the polls.

The MP dissatisfied with the ruling filed a case for it to be set aside at the Court of Appeal. But in court on Tuesday, the presiding judge, Irene Charity Larbi in delivering her judgement ordered that all applications relating to the appeal case before the court concerning the Assin North MP have to be struck out.

He further took the case to the Supreme Court to set aside the decision of the Court of Appeal to strike out his appeal which also affirmed the judgement of the lower court.

The plaintiff also prayed to the apex court to enforce the Cape Coast High Court Judgement and prevent a further breach of the constitution by restraining the MP.

“If he continues to be in Parliament, he will still be in breach of the constitution. The people of Assin North have been saddled with an unqualified person for far too long,” the Lawyer for Mr Nimfah, Frank Davies, told the Supreme Court on Tuesday, April 5, 2022.

But commenting on the majority decision taken by the apex court, Prof Asare who is also a CDD Fellow described the injunction as containing a lot of procedural confusion and called on Mr Gyakye Quayson to brace himself for a by-election since the court will definitely grant that.

Speaking on Accra-based Joy News on Wednesday, April 13, 2022, he urged the MP to try and win the election to “show us how wrong we do things and how inconsistent, and how incoherent our jurisprudence has become.”

“There are so many hanging issues like Edudzi was saying. There’s a case on appeal, there’s this Supreme Court ruling which it’s going to expedite, there’s an application for a review of a 3-2 decision by the Supreme Court in which Justice Pwamang and Justice Dodzi dissented, there are so many hanging issues.”

“This injunction came from nowhere. I’m afraid the Supreme Court is rushing too much into too many political cases and I’m afraid when it does so it’s setting aside too many precedents, and I’m really worried that the Supreme Court is going to create a situation where people are not going to take it very seriously. I’m worried,” he said.

“I wrote about this many months ago when Samson invited me to give a New Year statement, I said the most difficult situation facing the country now is a Court that is increasingly being perceived as partisan in a country where we are excessively partisan. The Court must look at this case more carefully.”

“Here you are, there is a High Court judgement that can easily be enforced. Why does the Court feel the need to be the one to enforce a High Court judgement? It strikes me as odd, it’s inconsistent with anything that you learn in law school or you figure out during your law practice.”

“I’m really worried, I think eventually, they can say what they want, once they’ve granted this injunction, I’m 100% confident that they’re going to say well the election should be held. So if I were the MP, I would resign, and I would go and run again for elections and try and win. And winning again will show us how wrong we do things and how inconsistent, and how incoherent our jurisprudence has become,” he added.