James Gyakye Quayson of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has been given the nod again to represent the people of Assin North in the Central Region in Parliament, after a landslide victory over the governing New Patriotic Party’s Charles Opoku.
Gyakye Quayson garnered 17,245 of the total valid votes cast representing 57.56 percent during Tuesday’s keenly contested by-election.
His closest challenger, Charles Opoku managed 12,630 votes representing 42.15 percent of the total votes cast, whilst Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) managed a paltry 87 votes (0.29%)
The total valid votes cast was 29,962 out of the 30,418 total votes cast for the day. A total of 456 votes were rejected.
With a voter turnout of 74.23%, the Electoral Commission officially declared Gyakye Quayson as the winner of the by-election.
The NPP had appeared the favourite going into the by-election, according to polls including those conducted by Global Info Analytics and pollster Ben Ephson. But the people of Assin North proved them wrong.
In the 2020 parliamentary election that was annulled by the Supreme Court in May, Mr Gyakye Quayson polled 17,498 votes to beat NPP’s Abena Durowaa Mensah, who polled 14,193.
Background
The Assin North parliamentary seat became vacant following a Supreme Court ruling on May 17 that instructed Parliament to expunge Mr. James Gyakye Quayson’s name from its records after years of legal battle challenging his legitimacy as the elected Member of Parliament for Assin North in the 2020 elections.
It would be recalled that immediately after being sworn into office as the MP for the area, one Michael Ankomah-Nimfah, a teacher and resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region, filed a petition at the Cape Coast High Court seeking to invalidate the declaration of Mr. Quayson as the MP for Assin North.
The Cape Coast High Court upheld Mr. Akomah-Nimfah’s petition, ruling that Mr. Quayson’s dual citizenship breached constitutional provisions.
Consequently, the court declared the 2020 parliamentary election in the Assin North Constituency null and void.
On May 17, the Supreme Court upheld the Cape Coast High Court’s decision and instructed Parliament to expunge Mr. Quayson’s name from its records.
Following the declaration of the Assin North seat as vacant by Parliament on May 30, the Electoral Commission scheduled a by-election in the constituency for June 27.
The NDC chose to nominate Mr. Gyakye Quayson as their candidate for the by-election whilst the governing New Patriotic Party settled on Mr. Charles Opoku.