The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described the Electoral Commission’s response on transferring unqualified NPP parliamentary aspirant in the Assin North by-election as unreasonable and unfounded.
The NDC in a statement on Sunday June 4 accused the NPP and the EC of attempting to include Charles Opoku, who is not a registered voter in the constituency, on the voter register.
The NPP rejected the claim in a counter statement, while the EC also denied working with the NPP to transfer the said individual into the voter register.
In another statement released on Monday June 5, the NDC insists that, Charles Opoku can not represent the people of Assin North in Parliament since he is not a registered voter in the constituency.
The statement further added that “under Article 94 of the Constitution, which the EC and the NPP have referenced, one is required to be a registered voter to be eligible to contest as a Member of Parliament. It does not take a legal luminary to understand that the purpose of this constitutional requirement is for a candidate to have a voting right and interest in an election to be eligible to contest and be voted for in that election.”
The Assin North constituency has been in the news in recent weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that the elected MP for the area in the 2020 general elections did not qualify to run for the elections.
Parliament then expunged James Gyakye Quayson’s name from its record following the ruling by the Supreme Court and subsequently declared the seat vacant to allow for a by-election scheduled for June 27, 2023.
Read full statement below
ELIGIBILITY-OF-UNQUALIFIED-NPP-PARLIAMENTARY-ASPIRANT-IN-THE-ASSIN-NORTH-BY-ELECTION
