Accra, Ghana – Sammy Gyamfi, the National Communications Officer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has expressed his perplexity at the Supreme Court‘s reasoning behind ordering Parliament to expunge James Gyakye Quayson's name from its records.
Referring to the ‘Nduom case,' Mr Gyamfi argued that the recent ruling of the apex court is inconsistent with previous rulings on similar cases. He believed that the Supreme Court should have given the embattled former Assin North MP an opportunity to rectify any issues with his nomination.
“The decision of the Supreme Court to annul Hon. Gyakye Quayson‘s election is solely based on the fact that, at the time he submitted his nomination form to the EC on 9th October 2020, he had not received his certificate of renunciation of his Canadian citizenship, and that he received the same on 26th November 2020.”
“Even if we are to go by this strange position of the Supreme Court that qualification must be at the time of NOMINATION and not ELECTION, it is important to remind the Supreme Court that in the Nduom case, they held in effect, that the nomination period for an election must extend beyond the submission of nomination forms and must include the period the EC uses to scrutinize submitted results, within which the EC is supposed to give candidates a hearing and an opportunity to rectify any anomalies on their nomination form,” he stated in a press release issued on Monday, June 5.
“The nomination period, therefore, terminates after the EC has scrutinized submitted nomination forms, given candidates a hearing and an opportunity to rectify any anomalies on the same, and has reached a decision on the validity or otherwise of the nomination of the candidate,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mr Gyamfi expressed confidence that the constituents of Assin North will vote for Mr Quayson in the upcoming by-election as a matter of justice.
James Gyakye Quayson's name was expunged from Parliament as the Member of Parliament for Assin North following a ruling by the Supreme Court in May 2023.
Subsequently, Parliament declared the seat vacant, paving the way for a by-election on June 27.
The Supreme Court determined that Mr Quayson was not qualified to contest the 2020 parliamentary election when he filed his nomination forms on October 9, 2020.
The Court found that Mr Quayson had not provided evidence of renouncing his Canadian citizenship, and the Electoral Commission had granted him permission to contest the election without this evidence.
The Court further ruled that Mr Quayson's election was unconstitutional.
In a unanimous ruling by the 7-member Court, it stated, “the qualification of holding only Ghanaian citizenship must be present at the time of nomination, and not any date thereafter.”
The Court also held that “any person who has obtained citizenship of another country other than Ghana and who files for nomination with the Electoral Commission to contest for election as a Member of Parliament will not be qualified to contest for elections unless and until they show a record from the alternate State that they no longer hold the citizenship of that State as at the date of filing their nominations with the Electoral Commission.”
“Since Mr Quayson had not received his certificate of renunciation as a Canadian citizen as of October 9, 2020, he was not qualified to be a Member of Parliament at the time he filed his nomination papers, at the time he stood for election, and at the time he was declared as an elected Member of Parliament.”
“This court has to, therefore, reiterate its earlier conclusion that the qualification of holding only Ghanaian citizenship must be present at the time of nomination, and not any date thereafter – in this case, by 9th October 2020.”