NDC group calls for calm
A group calling itself the Coalition for rejuvenation and reorganisation of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has called on supporters and members of the party to halt all personality attacks against one another and channel their energy towards building the party ahead of the next general election in 2020.
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The group, which claims to be made up of founder members of the party, cadres of the 31st December revolution and some constituency executives, also called on the leadership of the NDC to institute a national reorganisation committee to rebuild the party's structures at the grass-roots level in order to wrest power from the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
Addressing the media at a news conference in Accra, the spokesperson for the group, Mr Kimi Ampiah, said despite “our disappointment with leadership, we must avoid personality attacks, since the party’s crisis would not be resolved in that manner.”
"We must shelve all premature and unproductive debates on 2020 leadership and focus first on the systemic and organisational failings that have allowed leadership to perform so badly for so long," he said.
Mr Ampiah said the right time for the party to prepare for election 2020 was now, adding that the poor performance of the party in the 2016 general election should serve as a wake-up call for every member of the party to work harder.
“The December election results did not reflect support for the NPP and its agenda, rather the disappointment with the NDC’s delivery of our own agenda,” he stated.
‘We know why we lost’
Outlining some of the reasons that accounted for the poor election results, Mr Ampiah said: “We lost because hundreds of thousands of our members and supporters boycotted the polls in protest at years of neglect by the leadership, arrogance on the part of some executives, as well as ineffective election campaign.”
“Our members and supporters say the party abandoned its grass-roots base —working people, youth, women and indigenous business people —once it got power,” he said.
Mr Ampiah also mentioned that the NDC government surrendered control of businesses to foreign interests and uproductive social forces that undermined the ordinary people’s aspirations.
“Members and supporters were also embarrassed by the abuse of office that appeared to characterise our government in recent years,” he said.