The National Democratic Congress (NDC), has formed a 13-member committee to investigate the cause of the party’s historic defeat in the December 7 polls.
The committee, which was formed by the NDC’s Functional Executive Committee (NEC), and approved by its Council of Elders, is being chaired by a Former Minister of Finance and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Kwesi Botchwey.
President John Mahama was defeated by the New Patriotic Party’s Nana Akufo-Addo in the December 7 elections, in what many have described as the worst performance put up by a sitting President in an election.
The NPP Flagbearer finally secured the presidency after a third time, beating the incumbent, President John Mahama with 53.85 percent of valid votes cast.
Nana Akufo-Addo rode on the back of the valid votes cast to become Ghana’s fifth president under the fourth Republic. President Mahama, who ran on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), secured 44.40 of valid votes cast.
The difference in votes between the two main contenders was a little over 1.1 million, one of the highest to have been recorded against a sitting President in recent times.
The NDC also lost most of its seats in Parliament pushing them to be minority side in the law making house.
According to the NDC, the committee is expected to conduct hearing among the rank and file of the party, as well as solicit for views from members of the party across the country for review and restructure itself.
Addressing the press on Thursday, General Secretary of the NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said the committee is expected to submit its report within 90 days after its inauguration.
Below are the members:
- Kwesi Botchwey
- Edward Doe Adjaho (Outgoing Speaker of Parliament)
- Alhaji Hudu Yahaya
- Naval Capt. Asase Gyimah
- William Ahadzi (director of research at the NDC headquarters)
- Ibrahim Zuberu, (Lecturer at Accra Technical University and member of NDC)
- Razak Abu (Researcher at NDC’s Development Challenge)
- Juliana Azumah Mensah (Former MP for Agotime-Ziope)
- Barbarah Serwah Asamoah
- Four (4) members from NDC parliamentary caucus (including Minority Leader)
According to Asiedu Nketia, the committee which is yet to be inaugurated, is expected to “review and validate the results of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections and find out the causes of the poor performance of the NDC in both the presidential and the parliamentary election, as well as to deal with other matter reasonably related to the above objectives and to make recommendations to the National Executive Committee about the way forward.”
“The committee shall submit its report within 90 days of its inauguration,” he added.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Philip Nii Lartey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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