Lead counsel for Member of Parliament-elect for Assin North constituency, James Gyakye Quayson will today (June 29) commence an appeal process in the Court of Appeal, Criminal Division challenging the daily trial order for his client by an Accra High Court judge.
The move by Tsatsu Tsikata is to ensure that the MP-elect gets a fair trial in the criminal case he is facing.
In an affidavit signed by Justin Pwara Teriwajah, Quayson’s lawyer argued that the High Court judge in her ruling to allow daily trial for their client commited “errors of law.”
A portion of his affidavit said the ruling of the court had taken a political turn with president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo making prejudicial comments on the back of the ruling.
He said the president had emphasized a comment by his Attorney General to the effect that Gyakye Quayson had been irresponsible in opting to contest for a parliamentary seat when he was facing criminal charges.
The part on Akufo-Addo read: “That, apparently emboldened by the ruling of the court on 23rd June 2023, the extremely prejudicial, unjustified and insulting remarks of the Attorney-General were escalated to the level of the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
“That, at a campaign rally for the candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the said President made many prejudicial remarks, including some to the effect that the voters in Assin North Constituency should not vote for a candidate who could end up in prison.”
It went on to provide a GhanaWeb link to the said comments and stated that the accused will seek leave of the court to play a video clip of the remarks of Akufo-Addo at the said rally.
On the substantive case, Quayson’s lawyers filed an application for Stay of Proceedings pending the determination of his appeal on grounds of several errors of law committed by the trial judge which breached Quayson’s right to a fair trial.
Despite standing trial for five charges, the MP-elect stood for and won the June 27 by-election according to the Electoral Commission’s announcement, he garnered a total of 17,245 votes, representing 57.56% of the total votes cast.
His closest contender, Charles Opoku of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), received 12,630 votes, accounting for 42.15% of the votes.
Bernice Enyonam Sefenu of the Liberal Party Ghana (LPG) secured 87 votes, which represented 0.29% of the overall tally.
The by-election in Assin North was held to fill the parliamentary seat left vacant following a legal battle that questioned Quayson’s eligibility to hold office due to dual citizenship concerns.
