Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia

NDC forms 13-member committee to establish cause of defeat in elections

Musah Yahaya Jafaru Dec - 30 - 2016 , 14:24 2 minutes read

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has formed a 13-member committee to investigate and establish the cause of the party’s defeat in the December 7 general election.

Formed by the NDC’s National Executive Committee (NEC) and approved by its Council of Elders, the committee is chaired by a former Minister of Finance and Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Kwesi Botchwey.

Addressing the press yesterday, the General Secretary of the NDC, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketia, said the committee was expected to submit its report within 90 days after its inauguration.

Other members of the committee are Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, the outgoing Speaker of Parliament; Alhaji Hudu Yahaya, Naval Capt. Asase Gyimah, Mr William Ahadzi, the Director of Research at the NDC headquarters; Mr Ibrahim Zuberu, a lecturer at the Accra Technical University and member of the NDC; Mr Razak Abu, a Researcher at NDC’s Development Challenge; Mrs Juliana Azumah Mensah, former MP for Agotime-Ziope; and Ms Barbarah Serwah Asamoah, a Deputy Minister.

Also included on the committee are four members from the NDC parliamentary caucus.

Mandate of committee

Mr Nketia said the committee, which is yet to be inaugurated, was 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 elections, as well as deal with other matters reasonably related to the above objectives and to make recommendations to the NEC about the way forward.”

He said the committee was 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 to restructure itself.

Election results

President John Dramani Mahama, who was the flag bearer of the NDC in the December 7 general election, lost to Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

Nana Akufo-Addo secured 5,716,609 votes, representing 53.84 per cent, to snatch the Presidency from President Mahama, who secured 4,713,277 votes, representing 44.40 per cent.

The NDC also lost more than 40 parliamentary seats to the NPP, which has given the NPP the majority in Parliament.

Nana Akufo-Addo won the election after a third term bid as was the case for the late President John Evans Atta Mills.