Former President John Mahama reacted to the NDC's defeat in just ended Kumawu by-election on Tuesday.
The opposition party failed to reclaim the seat from NPP.
NPP's Ernest Yaw Anim obtained 15, 264 (70.91%) votes to be declared winner, beating his main rival NDC's Kwasi Amankwah of who had 3,723 (17.29%) votes.
Despite the defeat, Mahama said the NDC has made major inroads in the governing New Patriotic Party’s stronghold.
In a statement on Thursday Mahama, however, expressed misgivings with what he described as vote buying in the election, adding that the Electoral Commission must up its game in subsequent elections.
According to him, the party will apply lessons learned in Kumawu ahead of the next by-election.
"Kumawu has had positive outcomes for us, and we must apply lessons learned speedily even as we head towards the pending Assin North by-election."
Meanwhile, NDC says it is ready for a bye-election following the ruling of the Supreme Court directing Parliament to expunge the records of James Gyakye Quayson, Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North.
A statement issued by Mr Fifi Kwetey, the General Secretary of the NDC, “…..after consultations with Gyakye Quayson, the leadership of the NDC wishes to state unequivocally that we are ready for the bye-election that is now the result of this decision.”
It noted that the full weight of the Party, including the Minority Caucus in Parliament, would be put behind Gyakye Quayson so as to ensure an even more resounding victory for him in the upcoming bye-election.
It said the NDC had become aware of the Supreme Court’s decision invalidating the nomination, election, and subsequent swearing-in of Mr James Gyakye-Quayson, the MP for Assin North as unconstitutional.
It said the court did not give any reasons but said these would be available on or before 7th June.
“In the light of many previous decisions that we are aware of, including decisions in the case of JH Mensah, Baba Jamal and Peter Amewu that state that the Supreme Court does not have jurisdiction to Parliamentary Election and that the High Court is where such a matter should be taken, it seems strange to us that the Supreme Court gave this decision,” the statement said.
“Moreover, there is no doubt that Mr James Gyakye-Quayson did not owe allegiance to any other country whether at the time of his nomination, election, swearing-in.
We also look forward to seeing the reasons that the Court will provide.”
Background
The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the Electoral Commission (EC) acted unconstitutionally in allowing Mr Quayson to contest the 2020 parliamentary elections without proof of him renouncing his Canadian Citizenship.
This follows the case filed by a resident of the Constituency Michael Ankomah Nimfah.
Mr Nimfah had asked the court to rule that upon a true and proper interpretation of Article 94(2)(a) of the Constitution, 1992 of Ghana, at the time Mr Quayson filed his nomination form in October 2020 to contest the 2020 Parliamentary election for the Assin North Constituency, he was not qualified to contest a member of Parliament.
This is because the Constitution does not allow a person with dual nationality to hold certain public offices, including a Member of Parliament.