Gyakye Quayson ruling by the Supreme Court is “scandalous,” according to Justice Atuguba

William Atuguba, a former justice of the Supreme Court, has attacked the high court over the trial of James Gyakye Quayson, an Assin North MP.

Due to his apparent failure to renounce his Canadian citizenship prior to running in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the politician has been dealing with a barrage of legal troubles.

Justice Atuguba highlighted his worries with the Supreme Court’s decision to retry the Gyakye Quayson case during a public presentation under the theme “Protecting our democracy: the role of the Judiciary” in light of the High Court’s constitutional authority to hear appeals of parliamentary results.

He added that it was “scandalous” that Gyakye Quayson had been disqualified.

“The James Gyakye Quayson’s decision by the Supreme Court is with all due respect scandalous in that the court, in the teeth of the settled maxim Res Judicata et non quieta movere, re-adjudicated the same matter that has been adjudicated upon by the High Court on the merits. All that was left was its execution according to court processes.

“Again the stress laid by the court on the statutory processes for acquisition and renunciation of citizenship shot itself in the foot. If the certificate of renunciation is so mandatory and conclusive why was it not conclusive in its effect to qualify Gyakye Quason when he received it, dated 26th November 2020, whereas the parliamentary election was held on 7th December 2020? Statutes, judgements, and documents must always be applied with consistency both in the letter and spirit.

“These must always be construed holistically and as instruments of justice since it is a well-settled principle that the duty of a court is to do justice and a court should not be turned away from doing justice.”

Many people view the Gyakye Quayson case as a democracy test for Ghana. Concerns about the independence of the judiciary and the potential for the court to be used to reverse election results were highlighted by the Supreme Court’s decision to retry the case and disqualify the MP.

 The National Democratic Congress (NDC) then placed the MP forward once more for the bye-election, winning Assin North.

Gyakye Quayson received 17,245 votes, or 57.56% of the total, to win the election.

Charles Opoku, the candidate of the New Patriotic Party, received 12,630 votes, or 42.15% of the total valid votes, to finish in second place, while Bernice Enam Sefanu of the Liberal Party of Ghana received only 87 votes, or 0.29%.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com