A former Supreme Court Judge, Justice William Atuguba, has criticised the highest court of the land for nullifying the election of James Gyakye Quayson as the MP for Assin North in 2020 for holding a dual citizenship against Ghana’s constitution.
According to him, Article 99 of the 1992 Constitution has preserved post parliamentary election matters to the High Court with appeal at Court of Appeal, and therefore the Supreme Court had no legal basis in entertaining the action.
Justice Atuguba who chaired the nine-member panel in the 2012 presidential election petition and declared former President John Dramani validly elected in a 5-4 majority decision expressed his views at a lecture in Accra yesterday.
The lecture was organised by Solidaire Ghana, a pro-National Democratic Congress (NDC) civil society organisation, in collaboration with the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana, Legon.
It was on the theme: ‘Protecting our Democracy: The Role of the Judiciary.’
The decision by the Supreme Court in the Gyakye Quayson case, according to Justice Atuguba, suggested that the apex court had a concurrent jurisdiction over parliamentary election petition with the High Court, which was alien to the 1992 Constitution.
He argued that since parliamentary elections are held in over 200 constituencies, the 1992 Constitution could not have envisaged that post parliamentary election matters should be adjudicated by a centralised court such as the Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gyakye Quayson won the subsequent by-election in Assin North even though he is still facing criminal charges in court on the matter.
