James Gyekye Quayson is still the Member of Parliament for Assin North constituency according to the Director of the Legal Affairs of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Abraham Amaliba.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that James Gyakye Quayson cannot act as the MP for his constituency until the determination of the substantive case filed against him.
The Apex Court by a 5:2 majority ruling said “The MP is restrained from holding himself as MP for Assin North and restrained from attending Parliament to conduct business on behalf of the people of Assin North. The restriction remains until the final determination of the substantive matter. We direct that the case hearing be expedited“
Amaliba speaking to this in an interview on Neat FM’s Me Man Nti programme said according to the ruling, the Assin North MP is still an MP just that he can’t go to Parliament to perform his duties.
“…he is still an MP just that he can’t go to parliament until they deal with the substantive issue…but the question is what will it spoil if he is allowed to go to parliament while the substantive case is dealt with? how can you claim to be running a democracy when a group of people is not represented in parliament? The ruling has not said he’s no longer a Member of Parliament” he pointed out.
By-election
Lawyer Amaliba has meanwhile described as inaccurate Attorney General’s claim that the Electoral Commission can now declare the Assin North seat vacant and go ahead with a by-election.
Attorney-General (AG), Godfred Yeboah after the ruling indicated that “the High Court has ruled, given a judgement and determined the status of the gentleman as not qualified to have stood for election and had actually cancelled the election conducted in the Assin North constituency. The Court of Appeal subsequently struck out his appeal for non-compliance with the rules of the Court of Appeal.”
Adding “In my view, there should be nothing in the way of the Electoral Commission to declare the seat vacant”
However, Amaliba disagrees.
“I’ve heard the Attorney-General speaking and making wrong submissions about the law; that the EC can go ahead and conduct a by-election…who told him? Didn’t he hear that the substantive matter has been adjourned sine die meaning that until we determine that one there cannot be a by-election?” he questioned the AG.
Source: Peacefmonline
