During a recent lecture, former Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice William Atuguba expressed disapproval of the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify the election of James Gyakye Quayson as the MP for Assin North in the 2020 elections.
Justice Atuguba argued that Article 99 of the 1992 Constitution had reserved post-parliamentary election matters to the High Court with appeal at the Court of Appeal, and therefore the Supreme Court had no legal basis to entertain the action.
He further stated that the decision by the Supreme Court in the Gyakye Quayson case implied that the apex court had concurrent jurisdiction over the parliamentary election petition with the High Court, which was not in line with the 1992 Constitution.
Justice Atuguba pointed out that since parliamentary elections were held in over 200 constituencies, the 1992 Constitution could not have foreseen that post-parliamentary election matters should be adjudicated by a centralized court such as the Supreme Court. The lecture was organized by Solidare Ghana, a civil society organisation, in collaboration with the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana.
He said what was supposed to have been done was the execution of the High Court’s decision and not a fresh matter at the Supreme Court
“The decision of the Gyakye Quayson case was scandalous. The Supreme Court re-adjudicated the matter already decided by the High Court,“ he said.Justice Atuguba criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to nullify Mr. Quayson’s election, stating that it failed to uphold justice.
This ruling came despite the fact that the Member of Parliament had unequivocally renounced his Canadian citizenship in November 2020, and the election took place in December 2020.
“The Supreme Court does not stand in good light despite the clear renunciation in November 2020 whereas the election was in December, I am not able to see substantial justice in this,” he said.
According to him, it was untenable for the Supreme Court to had concluded that Mr Quayson hold allegiance to Canada when he had clearly initiated his renunciation of Canadian citizenship in 2019.
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