Despite JJ's death, NDC fared well in 2020 polls – Haruna Iddrisu

Minority leader and Tamale South MP, Haruna Iddrisu, has hailed the NDC’s performance in the 2020 parliamentary polls.

He described the performance as ‘heartwarming’ especially within the context of having lost the party’s founder with a month to the crucial polls.

Haruna made an official statement in the house as a tribute to the former president, Jerry John Rawlings, whose final funeral rites kick off this weekend.

“For me as a young member of parliament, what warms my heart is that even one month into the death of president Rawlings, the NDC fared well and performed well in the competitive elections of December 2020 with 137 – 137 (equal number of seats as NPP in parliament).

“It means our great party has been born and birthed as a major political force in our constitutional democratic process.

“On my own behalf and on behalf of the NDC caucus in this house, I render sincere sympathies to the president and the good people of Ghana on the departure of our former head of state,” he added.

Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, also opened the floor for other members to share their tributes to the former president who governed as a military ruler and later the first democratically elected president under the fourth republican constitution.

Parliament will file past the remains of the former president on Tuesday, January 26, before members return to the house to continue with legislative duties.

The NDC and governing NPP got 137 seats apiece in the current parliament. The NPP however got the 'majority' label as a result of the acceptance of the sole independent member, MP for Fomena, to work with the party.

In the presidential race, the elections body announced that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had been reelected with over 51% of valid votes cast. The results are being challenged in court by former president John Dramani Mahama.