The Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has insisted that the Assin North Parliamentary seat held by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP), James Gyakye Quayson, is vacant.
He said the total number of Members of Parliament (MPs) was now 274 and not 275, which he claimed the Minority in Parliament agreed with the position.
Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who is the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, questioned why the Minority Caucus were stressing on 136 and not 137 because they were aware Mr Quayson had been “ousted by the court”.
Citing Article 97 of the 1992 Constitution, he maintained that “there is automaticity that renders a seat vacant if any circumstances arise such that if he was not a Member of Parliament will cause him to be disqualified or ineligible for election under Article 94 under the Constitution and I disagree it requires the court to declare a parliamentary seat vacant.
“The Assin North Parliamentary seat became automatically vacant the moment Mr Quayson failed to prove to the Judiciary he qualified to run as a Parliamentary candidate in the 2020 election because there is automaticity and who said it must come from the mouth of somebody.
“If the person decides not to make the pronouncement, does that mean the disqualified MP will be there? No, and in the “fullness of time” the law will take its course, “Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the MP for Suame Constituency in the Ashanti Region, posited.