James Gyakye Quayson won the June 27 Assin North by-election despite massive campaigning against his candidature by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.
The Member of Parliament-elect, who was ousted last month on the back of a Supreme Court ruling which annulled his candidature in the 2020 polls, also had his name expunged from parliamentary records.
The decision of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to field him as their candidate was seen as a risk but the party’s gamble with the outcome of the vote has paid off.
In the end, he prevailed against a contender, Charles Owusu and the governing New Patriotic Party as well as the presidency, safe to add the presidential flagbearers of the NPP, most of who attended rallies in Assin North.
Below are five reasons Gyakye Quayson prevailed despite the stiff odds he came up against
Sympathy votes from his ouster by Supreme Court
The nature of Quyson’s ouster was widely contested by the NDC and other legal luminaries like Prof. Kwaku Azar; which sentiment seemed to have sunk by way of the NDC’s campaign.
Development blitz by NPP
The presidency and relevant ministries descended on the constituency with projects upon projects.
A section of the voters openly spoke about their anger that the government abandoned them all that while and sought to win the polls using last-minute projects.
Ongoing criminal trial by government
Gyakye Quayson’s criminal trial at the High Court is also a factor that analysts believe played in the interest of the embattled MP.
Gyakye Quayson is currently facing charges of perjury and forgery related to his Canadian citizenship status at the time of filing his nomination forms for the 2020 parliamentary election.
Well-oiled NDC campaign
The NDC knowing the political implications of the outcome of the vote in relation to the 2024 polls deployed a well oiled campaign that involved all officials across the national, regional and constituency levels.
This was evident in the way the party collated its results, matching the official results with slight percentage points.
Massive show of support by Minority
Almost all NDC MPs were deployed to the campaign grounds at different times with his former colleagues serving as polling station executives across the constituency.
Weeks before the vote, northern MPs, Ashanti, Volta and Greater Accra MPs were strategically deployed to specific zones that had specific ethnic demographics to drum home the strength of the MP-elect.
