Lawyer in private practice and lecturer at the GIMPA Law Faculty, John Darko, has filed his nomination forms to contest the Suame constituency parliamentary primaries of the New Patriotic Party on Saturday 27 January 2024.
The Suame seat is currently occupied by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Majority Leader in Parliament, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who has declared that he will not stand in the 2024 parliamentary primaries, after serving four terms.
John Darko is said to be in pole position to win the primaries and ultimately to win the Suame seat in December 2024. Darko is an indigene of Breman, a town within the Suame constituency, where grew up.
He stood in the NPP 2016 parliamentary primaries in Suame and placed third. However, he was not allowed to run in the primaries in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, allowing the incumbent MP, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu to stand unopposed.
0John Darko (holding his nomination forms) at the NPP Suame constituency office before he filed
Darko holds an LL.M. in energy, environmental, and natural resources from the University of Houston Law Centre, Texas, where he was a recipient of the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and the Rocky Mountains Minerals Law Foundation scholarships.
He obtained his qualifying certificate in law (QCL) from the Ghana School of Law in Accra between September 2007 and October 2009, an LLB from the University of Ghana between September 2005 and May 2007, and a BA in political science in May 2003.
John Darko, who is a partner at Darko, Keli-Delataa & Co, has been a natural resources and environmental lawyer with 13 years of experience, cutting across commercial, advisory, academia, and consultancy settings, and delivering success on projects worth several millions of US dollars.
He also has a strong understanding of laws governing Ghana’s energy, land, and natural resources sector. Darko has demonstrated exceptional leadership and integrity as a board member of six government and private organisations across the oil and gas, insurance, finance, and education industries, including Ghana Gas Company Ltd.
The NPP opened nominations for parliamentary seats where it has sitting MPs on Wednesday (20 December). The nomination and filing process is expected to close on Monday 25 December (Christmas Day). John Darko picked up his forms on 21 December, completed and submitted them within 24 hours.
