Parliamentary shift with Speaker's ruling is God's sign of victory for NDC in 2024 - Mahama

The Parliamentary shift of the Majority and Minority swapping positions following the Speaker's declaration of four seats vacant, is God's sign of victory for the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the December 2024 elections, former President John Dramani Mahama has said.

Speaking at a campaign rally at Kpone-on-Sea on Thursday night, Mr Mahama said: "if the report I am hearing from Parliament is true, then something historic has just happened. The report I am hearing is that the Speaker has declared four seats vacant. Of the four seats three are from the NPP and one from NDC. So if those seats have been declared vacant, it means in the life of one Parliament the Minority has turned to the Majority and the Minority has turned to the Majority.

"So for me, God is even showing a sign of what is going to happen because even before we have cast one single ballot, the NDC has become the Majority [in Parliament]. But we have to make it a reality on 7th December 2024 and that is when the people of Ghana are going to cast their vote. It is going to be a watershed event that is going to change the course of Ghana’s history," the presidential candidate of the NDC said.

Mr Mahama said he believes the shift in Parliament, where the Minority has become the Majority, is a foreshadowing of what to expect in the 2024 general elections.

What happened in Parliament?

The Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin on Thursday, October 17, 2024, declared the seats of four members of Parliament vacant for crossing carpet. 

He gave his ruling on the matter following a petition filed by Minority side last Tuesday.

The Speaker ruled that the four MPs by their various actions for deciding to file to contest the December 7, 2024 parliamentary election in different capacities, as either independent candidates or on the ticket of a political party by that action, have vacated their seats in the current Parliament.

The four MPs are Cynthia Mamle Morrison for Agona West, Kwadjo Asante for Suhum, both NPP MPs who have filed to contest the next parliamentary election as independent candidates and Peter Kwakye-Ackah for Amenfi Central, an NDC MP who has also filed to contest the next election as an independent candidate.

Mahama's reaction

"I have been to 10 regions so far and everywhere I have gone and interacted with market women, with taxi drivers, with teachers, with nurses, with doctors, with drivers, everybody says Ghana needs a change," he said. 

In addition, he observed, "We have suffered long enough. The youth of this country no longer have the luxury to continue on the path of trial and error."

For the former President, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has run out of ideas completely and that "they have no new idea" to change the course of the country.