Chief of Assin Dansame in the Assin North Constituency, Nana Dr. Okofo Twum Berema, has urged residents to vote massively for New Patriotic Party (NPP) Parliamentary Candidate, Charles Opoku during the by-election in the constituency come June 27, 2023.

According to the Chief, he is confident that the NPP candidate will be the people's best representative in parliament and will also lobby for the needed developmental projects in the constituency.

Speaking when the NPP candidate, Charles Opoku visited the town, Chief Nana Dr. Okofo Twum Berema while openly endorsing the candidate revealed that he was on the grounds of campaigning for Charles Opoku during the NPP primary to elect a parliamentary candidate.

“I can say on authority that I am the first Chief to endorse Charles Opoku. I am the Chief who broke protocol and went with Charles to the grounds to campaign during the NPP parliamentary primary. I went with him to many places. I was the first person who introduced Charles to the Minister for Roads and Highways."

"I told the Minister that Charles is my cousin and that I’ve heard that other persons want to contest to become a parliamentary candidate but as for me, it’s only Charles that I know and that he should help him. After that, when it was time for the election, my wife and I supported Charles, where we needed to send food, we did that. Whatever we had to do to ensure his victory, we did that,” he said.

Nana Dr. Okofo Twum Berema added: “So, after all these, and we are now at the last point, why should we turn our backs on him? I have been calling Charles every morning and evening to ask him how far with his campaign, and if he needs some help. So, it is not at this crucial moment that I, my elders, and people will desert him. We are going to vote massively for him and ensure that he wins.”

The Electoral Commission has set June 27 for the Assin North by-election which is a two-horse race between the NPP’s Charles Opoku and opposition NDC’s James Gyakye Quayson.

The by-election has become necessary after a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court unanimously declared as unconstitutional, the election of Mr Quayson as MP in 2020.

“Parliament is ordered to expunge the name of the first defendant (James Gyakye Quayson) as Member of Parliament for Assin North Constituency,” the court ruled.

The court held that the whole process leading to the election of Mr Quayson – filing of nomination forms, election itself and swearing-in, were all in violation of Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution, which bars a person with dual citizenship from contesting as an MP.

It was the considered view of the court that as of the time, Mr. Quayson filed his nomination forms in October 2020 to contest for the Assin North seat, he had not renounced his Canadian citizenship and, therefore, was not qualified per Article 94(2)(a) of the Constitution.

In view of that the court further held that the Electoral Commission (EC) also violated Article 94(2)(a) of the Constitution when it permitted Mr Quayson to contest the election.

“Upon the true and proper interpretation of Article 94(2)(a) the decision of the second defendant [Electoral Commission] to permit the first defendant [James Gyakye Quayson] to contest the parliamentary election of Assin North when the first defendant had not shown evidence of the cancellation of his citizenship of Canada is an act which is inconsistent with and violates Article 94(2)(a) of the 1992 Constitution,” the court held.

Consequently, the court declared that the election of Mr Quayson as well as his swearing-in as an MP was unconstitutional, null, void, and of no legal effect.