Assin North verdict: Supreme Court's ruling confusing — Kwaku Azar

A US-based Ghanaian Lawyer, Prof. Stephen Kwaku Asare has described the Supreme Court's 5-2 decision against the Assin North Member of Parliament, James Gyakye-Quayson as confusing.

According to him, there's no basis for the apex court to deny James Quayson the right to perform his parliamentary duties

He said the earlier ruling by the Cape Coast High Court had no basis for granting the injunction which has been enforced by the Supreme Court.

He explained that in granting the injunction, the Cape Coast High Court had sought to interpret Article 94(2)(a), an action which is the reserve of the Supreme Court, and had further added timelines to the Article.

He argued that the apex court assenting to the injunction only served as a stamp of approval to the judicial error which now has left the Assin North people unrepresented in Parliament and there is no solution to the lacuna created as a result of the injunction in Parliament.

"There is this injunction because Plaintiff has issued a writ at the Supreme Court asking for the interpretation of Article 94(2)(a). Plaintiff is saying he doesn’t understand Article 94(2)(a) and so the Supreme Court should help him understand that.

"But there is a judge somewhere in Cape Coast who has interpreted Article 94(2)(a) and told the Plaintiff ‘hey Plaintiff, I’m going to grant you all your reliefs.’ And the Supreme Court is sitting there saying 'well yes, we don't understand Article 94(2)(a) but we're going to interpret it," he said.

Speaking on Joy News after the verdict, Kwaku Azar said "But meanwhile we think it is okay for some High Court judge not only to interpret it but to issue and grant injunctions setting aside the wishes of voters’ when there is a law that voters decisions must be entreated with the highest level of deference and they are not to be set aside willingly."

He said the High Court in Cape Coast erred in its ruling adding that "in fact, to cancel an election in our jurisdiction, one must show that at the time of the election, not at the time of the primary, not at the time of the nomination, not anytime, at the time of the election, the person was not qualified."

He stated: "So regardless of what the Supreme Court will tell us one week or whenever they want to tell us, there’s just no ground for the High Court judge to have determined that one, he’s going to interpret Article 94(2)(a), two, he’s going to put his own timelines in Article 94(2)(a), three, he’s going to injunct the MP.

"And remember he even injuncted the MP on 6th January, he didn’t want the MP to sit in Parliament even before Parliament convened, even before hearing the matter."

The court in a unanimous decision barred the MP for Assin North, James Quayson from holding himself as the MP till the case against him is determined.

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 Quayson as the MP of Assin North.

The Cape Coast High Court in the Central Region had declared the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency as null and void because Mr. Quayson breached the provisions of the constitution with regard to dual citizenship.

Quayson subsequently appealed the judgment, at the Court of Appeal in Cape Coast.