NDC candidate Gyakye Quayson wins Assin North by-election

Despite the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) throwing everything it has got into the parliamentary by-election in the Assin North Constituency, the candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) James Gyakye Quayson has  beaten the main contender, NPP candidate Charles Opoku, making him two-time winner of the seat.

Provisional results from more than 90 of the 99 polling stations show that Quayson has obtained more than 55 per cent of the votes, emphatically putting him ahead of Opoku. The candidate of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG), Bernice Enyonam Sefanu trailed a distant third.

Quayson was elected to Parliament in the 2020 elections, but his election was challenged on his dual-citizenship. When the matter went to court, the Supreme Court ruled against him, and declared the election unconstitutional. A seven-member Supreme Court panel unanimously took the decision in May 2023, and  ordered Parliament to expunge his name from its records.

The Court said Mr Quayson breached Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution because at the time he filed to contest the elections, he was not qualified to be elected as a legislator since he had not renounced his dual citizenship.

It therefore declared Mr Quayson’s filing to contest, the Electoral Commission’s decision to allow him to contest, as well as his swearing-in as MP as all unconstitutional, null and void, and ordered a by-election.