Executives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who had stated that the NDC was leading in the tabulation of the 2016 presidential election results, at a time it was glaring to every Ghanaian that the party was losing, should be sanctioned, former Eastern Regional Minister Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere has said.
According to him, these officials deceived the entire party and then President John Mahama, an indication that they cannot be trusted to do a good work going forward.
It would be recalled that on the night of 8th December, 2016, when the results of the polls were fast trickling in, Koku Anyidoho, Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, in the company of some leading party figures including National Organiser Kofi Adams, then Deputy Minister of Communications Felix Kwakye Ofosu, and NDC Director of Elections Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, declared at a press conference that the NDC “is in a comfortable lead”.
This press conference was in response to an earlier press conference addressed by Peter Mac Manu, the 2016 Campaign Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), urging then President Mahama to concede defeat as the NPP was winning the election.
But Mr Boasiako believed that the declaration by the NDC at the counter-press conference was deceptive because it was obvious from poll results being telecast live that the party was losing the polls.
He told Chief Jerry Forson, host of Ghana Yensom, on Accra100.5FM on Friday May 26, while calling for a rebuilding of the NDC, that: “All those who claim that the party was in a comfortable lead are still around, nothing has happened to them. They deceived the entire country because we all saw the results as they came in on TV.”
He further stated the defeat of the NDC was mainly down to neglect of party founder and former President Jerry John Rawlings.
He has, therefore, asked the rank and file of the party to reconcile with him to allow him help in rebuilding the party from the grassroots.
“If we want to move ahead as a party we need to recognise that we were born out of the principles and values of the revolution. The founder of the revolution is there, he is not dead, but we don’t want to use him. He has won elections twice in a row on the ticket of the NDC and he won by 58 per cent – unprecedented in the history of elections in Ghana – but the party neglected him.
“We need to go back to him and apologise to him.”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
