By: Edzorna Francis Mensah
Hundreds of Members of Parliament (MPs) are likely to desert Parliamentary business on Tuesday, 27th June, 2023 pending the Assin North Parliamentary by-election slated for the same day in the Central Region.
MPs from both side of the divide “the Minority and the Majority” are currently in the Central Region Assin North embarking on a House-to-house, Shop-to-Shop, from Market-to-Market as well as one-on-one, on the streets campaign just to persuade the electorates for votes in support of their respective candidate-NDC and NPP specifically.
The two leading candidates for the Tuesday are James Gyakye Quayson, the deposed MP on the ticket of the opposition NDC and Charles Opoku on the ticket of the governing NPP.
The by-election in the Assin North Constituency is in line with Article 112 (5) of the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, as amended, following the Supreme Court’s ruling by a 5-2 majority decision on 13th April 2023, that James Gyakye Quayson could not continue to sit in the house as MP for Assin North.
He had appealed a Cape Coast High Court ruling that nullified his election in 2020 and ordered a by-election following a petition.
Currently, the seat is in the hands of the NDC and during the election for Parliamentary representative, James Gyakye Quayson secured 17,498 of the total votes representing 55.21% to win and Abena Durowaa Mensah on the ticket of the NPP had 14, 193 votes representing 44.79% and total Votes Cast was 31,69.
But historically, both NDC and NPP enjoyed equal share of the seat because the current MP for Assin Central, Ken Ohene Agyapong was the MP for the Assin North constituency from the 2000 parliamentary election to the 2008 parliamentary election became the MP for Assin Central constituency in 2012. Below is the statical table from the Wikipedia.
1992 Francis K. Edzii National Convention Party
1996 Florence Kumi National Democratic Congress
2000 Kennedy Agyapong New Patriotic Party
2004 Kennedy Agyapong New Patriotic Party
2008 Kennedy Agyapong New Patriotic Party
2012 Samuel Ambre National Democratic Congress
2016 Abena Durowaa Mensah New Patriotic Party
2020 James Gyakye Quayson National Democratic Congress
Assin Central Municipal District (a.k.a. Assin Fosu Municipal District) is one of the twenty-two districts in Central Region, Ghana. Originally it was formerly part of the then-larger Assin District in 1988, until the southern part of the district was split off to create Assin South District on 18th February 2004; thus, the remaining part has been renamed as the first Assin North District, which it was later elevated to municipal district assembly status on 29th February 2008 to become Assin North Municipal District.
However, on 15th March 2018, the southern part of the district was split off to create the present Assin North District; thus, the remaining part was renamed as Assin Central Municipal District.
The municipality is located in the northwest part of Central Region and has Assin Fosu as its capital town.