Election of Speaker: Assin North MP-elect casts ballot despite court injunction

James Gyakye Quayson, the MP-elect for Assin North, voted in the process for the selection of a Speaker for the 8th Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

This is after a court injunction barring him from holding himself out as a legislator and subjecting himself to be sworn-in as the representative of the people of Assin North.

The court injunction was granted in a case filed by one Michael Ankomah-Nimfa of Assin Bereku who claims James Gyakye Quayson holds dual citizenship of Ghana and Canada.

Cyril Kwabena Oteng Nsiah, the Clerk of Parliament had stated earlier that he will not recognise the MP-elect in the election of Speaker.

He said, “I was duly served, and I am therefore unable to recognize James Quayson as MP-elect for the purposes of the election of Speaker. I will therefore accordingly proceed in the conduct of this election.”

This decision did not go down well with the NDC MPs who then accused the Clerk of being bias.

They insisted that because the MP-elect had not been served with the injunction documents, the Clerk should allow him to take part in the voting process.

Haruna Iddrisu had argued that Mr. Quayson is yet to be served the writ of injunction from the court thus should be allowed to participate in the proceedings of the house till he’s formally served.

“Mr. Chairman, courts don’t determine an elected person in Ghana. The court has the mandate to adjudicate on matters brought before it but the election of Member of Parliament is vested in Ghanaian citizens. We are aware that James Gyakye Quayson of Assin North was duly elected. As far as we know, no court processes have been served on him personally. That is why he is here having registered and having been recognized as a member of the 275 MPs”, leader of the NDC in Parliament said.

This request was turned down after a heated debate but was later granted with the Clerk warning that Parliament cannot be held responsible for the consequences that may arise from its decision to vote in the process.