Minority caucus allege government using court to reduce its numbers
Gyakye Quayson readies for protracted legal actions
The Minority caucus has maintained that its embattled Member of Parliament for Assin North, James Gyakye Quayson is still a member of the 8th Parliament.
The group's comment comes on the back of the Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu declaring that the MP’s seat is vacant per an Appeals Court decision thus making the total number of MPs in the current Parliament, 274.
“If you listen to the Minority leader today he said they know they have 136. That’s true. Why is it that they are not stressing on 137 but 136, because they know that technically the Assin North person has been ousted by the Courts. They know,” the Suame MP said.
But the Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka insists the Assin North MP has not been ousted from Parliament.
He contends that the court process has not been exhausted thus the seat of Gyekye Quayson cannot be declared vacant.
“I don’t know where the Majority Leader is conjecturing from. I mean it’s just like what Atta Akyea was saying a few weeks ago on your platform…we will resist him and we will get him to be sent out. These are all rhetoric.
“The processes are not exhausted. Once the process is exhausted, obviously whichever way it goes, we will be law-abiding. But for now, the processes are on.
“The Supreme Court issues are on, the Appeals Court matters are on, the High Court matters are on and they have not been exhausted,” Muntaka stressed.
Background
James Gyakye Quayson won the Assin North seat in the 2020 elections when he garnered some 17,498 votes representing 55.21% against his New Patriotic Party (NPP) contender, Abena Durowaa Mensah who polled 14, 193 votes, representing some 44.79%.
However a resident of the constituency challenged his election on grounds of holding dual citizenship.
In July 2021, a Cape Coast High Court in the Central Region declared the 2020 parliamentary election held in the Assin North Constituency invalid on grounds of dual citizenship at the time of contesting as an MP.
He has since been challenging the High Court ruling in two higher courts.
Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson