The General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party, John Boadu says his party is poised to contest the Assin North Parliamentary seat when a decision is finally made on the fate of the embattled MP James Gyakye Quayson.
James Quayson’s election as MP for Assin North was nullified in July 2021 by a Cape Coast high court after it was determined that he owed allegiance to Canada at the same time of filing his nomination forms to contest the polls.
After months of litigation, the Supreme Court in a 5-2 decision ruled that Assin North MP, James Gyakye Quayson, can no longer perform Parliamentary duties.
This is until the determination of the substantive case filed against him at the Supreme Court.
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According to John Boadu, he is confident the litigation will end in a bye election, thus his party is ready to contest for the seat.
“Yes by the arrangement and by decisions of the court, and by where we are, we are very sure that this litigation will come to an end very soon [and move on to a bye-election] obviously,” he said.
“What is the essence of having somebody who is not legitimate rep of a constituent? And so as for Assin North we’re ready for it, that’s why we are a political party.
“We’re ready for it and we believe that when the decision is made, we’re ready to contest. It’s a seat we’ve won severally; it’s a seat we’ve lost twice as well, so it is still open,” he added.
He, however, expressed concern about how long the entire process is taking.
According to him, he is hopeful that before the 2024 elections, the judiciary will rationalize the election petition process for Parliamentary elections just as it has done for Presidential elections.
“My worry is that, you realize that after 2012 elections the judiciary itself took a decision to rationalize the petition arrangement only that they didn’t touch that of the Parliamentary. They did that for presidential, gave a time limit and period and the process and all that.
“I am hoping that before 2024 that of Parliament will also be done so that … because there are a lot of issues in court that can take three years, that can take four years.”