Clerk, Assin North MP sued over Speaker election

• Posted on February 1, 2021February 1, 2021
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

An Accra-based businessman has filed a writ at the High Court challenging the position of Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as Speaker of Parliament.

Seth Yeboah (Petitioner) in a writ filed on January 26, 2021 with Suit No. GJ/0442/2021, is seeking a declaration that the decision by the Clerk of Parliament (1st Respondent) to allow James Quayson (2nd Respondent) to participate in the election of the Speaker of Parliament and James Quayson holding himself as Member of Parliament-elect of Assin North when there was in existence, a clear court order prohibiting him; collectively made the election of Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin as Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana illegal void and of no effect.

Mr. Yeboah averred in the petition that on January 7, 2021 the Eighth Parliament of the Republic of Ghana convened for the first time for the sole business of electing a Speaker of Parliament where all elected Members of Parliament took their seats and the 2nd Respondent (James Quayson) purported to take a seat as the Member of Parliament elected for Assin North.

According to the Petitioner, on January 6, 2021, a certain Ustarz Hamza, Deputy Chief Registrar of the High Court, Cape Coast, signed an Order of Interlocutory Injunction ordering that the 2nd Respondent be restrained from holding himself out as Member of Parliament-elect for the Assin North Constituency in the Central Region.

“That notwithstanding the express terms of the Interlocutory Injunction and the fact that the 1st Respondent brought this to the attention of the 2nd Respondent, he nonetheless went ahead and proceeded to cast his vote in the elections that resulted in the declaration of Alban Bagbin as the Speaker of Parliament,” he stated.

Mr. Yeboah believes that if the terms of the court injunction had been obeyed to the letter, the results of the elections would have been different since the participation of the 2nd Respondent in the election of the Speaker when there was a valid court injunction ordering him not to hold out himself as the Member of Parliament-elect made the election illegal void and of no effect.

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