The Registrar of the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday told the court that two attempts to serve the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North Constituency, Mr James Gyakye Quayson, with an injunction motion has proved futile.
Mr Richard Takyi-Mensah, the applicant, a teacher and resident of Yamoransa in the Central Region, filed the motion at the SC to stop Mr Quayson from holding himself as MP.
It is his case that the MP failed to renounce his citizenship at the time he filed his nomination to contest the 2020 parliamentary election.
The motion on notice filed by Mr Frank Davies, counsel for the applicant, is seeking the seven-member panel of the SC to interpret article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution.
Last week Tuesday, the panel of judges, presided over by Justice Jones Dotse, asked the applicant to make a direct personal service on the MP in the absence of the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
In the course of proceedings yesterday, the court held that the MP was still covered by article 117 of the 1992 Constitution until the Court of Appeal,Cape Coast, dealt with the pending appeal against the High Court decision that annulled the 2020 Assin North Constituency Parliamentary election.
When the case was called, private legal practitioner, Mr Tsatsu Tsikata, wanted to make a contribution as a friend of the court, also known in legal parlance as amicus curiae but the court did not allow him to make an input.
In August, 2021, the Assin North legislator filed appeal at the Court of Appeal, Cape Coast, to challenge the decision of the High Court that declared his election a nullity.
On July 28, 2021, the Cape Coast High Court declared the Assin North Constituency 2020 Parliamentary election organised by the Electoral Commission (EC) null and void.
The court presided over by Justice Kwasi Boakye said Mr Quayson, did not renounce his Canadian citizenship before he filed his nomination to contest the Parliamentary election on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and, thus, ordered the EC to organise a fresh election in the constituency.
Dissatisfied by the decision of the High Court, the Assin North lawmaker filed an appeal and joined the petitioner and the Electoral Commission (EC)as respondents.
In the appeal, signed by counsel for the appellant, Justin Pwavra Teriwajah of Kaponde and Associate Chambers, the appellant argued that the trial judge erred in law when he did not allow for proof of foreign law in the determination of the issue of whether or not the appellant owed allegiance to a country other than Ghana.
The case has been adjourned to March 1.
BY MALIK SULLEMANA
