MP-elect for Fomena Constituency, Andrew Asiamah Amoako has criticized Speaker of Parliament, Prof Mike Ocquaye for declaring his seat vacant ahead of the 2020 presidential and parliamentary election.
According to him, the pronouncement by the Speaker after he declared his intention to contest as an independent candidate was “unfortunate”.
“Speaker is my father, it’s unfortunate that decision was taken. I must admit, it’s unfortunate because I have not come across any precedence in this particular House with respect to that particular decision,” Mr. Asiamah told the Parliamentary Press Corps.
“He [Speaker] controls Parliament and took that decision. Personally, I knew it was wrong but my focus was to get the seat back and now I have gotten it back the rest is history” he said.
Speaker of Parliament, Prof Oquaye on 7th November 2020, declared the Fomena seat vacant.
The Speaker’s ruling followed a petition by the leadership of the New Patriotic Party under Article 97 (1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana which asked Parliament to expel Mr. Asiamah from the House after he decided to run as an independent candidate in the just-ended parliamentary election.
After the December polls, Mr. Asiamah who contested as an independent candidate polled 12,805 representing 48.56% of the total votes cast to secure victory against his three other opponents in the contest.
The NPP’s Philip Ofori-Asante polled 10,798, representing 40.95% while the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Christiana Ama Appiagyei had 2,608 votes representing 9.89%.
Meanwhile, Eric Appiagyei of the Ghana Union Movement (GUM) also polled just 158 of the total votes representing 0.6%.
Commenting on the alleged unfair treatment by the NPP, the Fomena MP said he’s already made the decision to go back to the NPP in the 8th Parliament and that he believes the party has learnt some lessons from its previous mistakes.
He added that, he feels vindicated by his victory.
Mr. Asiamah also rubbished claims that he’s made demands to the government before agreeing to join the party.