Why NDC needs a 'new face' to win 2020 elections - Spio-Garbrah

A flagbearer aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah believes the NDC as a party could only win the 2020 presidential election with a “fresh blood” and a “new face” leading the party.

According to him, the image of the party has been badly dented and needing rebranding, adding that such a rebranding can only be done with a new candidate to lead the party.

Mr Spio-Garbrah who was speaking to Graphic Online in Accra Monday, said he was the best bet of the party going into the 2020 general elections.

He said as someone with very strong skills in communication, he could lead the drive to rebrand the party to gain acceptance among the Ghanaian populace.

According to Mr Spio-Garbrah, the party lost to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) partly due to the dent of corruption and incompetence allegations the latter tagged the NDC during the 2016 elections.

“How we can rub off from our bodies, the stench of allegations of corruption,” he quizzed, urging the party’s electorate to elect a leader who can help the party to rub off from its body “allegations of incompetence.”

He was of the view that the party needs a leader “who cannot be smeared with allegations of corruption or incompetence” to win power from the NPP, going into the 2010 general elections.

He said he has worked in various capacities under various agencies and nobody has ever labeled him corrupt or incompetence.

“I have worked with institutions which are known for competence,” Mr Spio-Garbrah said, adding that “you cannot work for the World Bank if you are incompetent.”

He said he voluntarily resigned from the World Bank “to serve his people” and added that the country needs “a servant leader” to turn things around for the betterment of its citizens.

Mr Spio-Garbrah also told Graphic Online that apart from the party going into the 2016 elections with a dented image, it also had no clear message to convince voters, hence leading to its humiliating defeat to the then opposition NPP.

He said as someone with very high competencies in communication, he would devise strategies to sell the party’s message to enable it to receive the needed acceptance from Ghanaian voters.

Mr Spio-Garbrah expressed concern that even the party’s communicators could not tell the message of the party in the 2016 elections, stressing that he went to the Ashanti Region about two weeks ago and asked the party’s communicators if they could tell him the message the party campaigned in the 2016 elections and nobody was able to tell.

He added however, that when the same party communicators were asked about NPP’s message in 2016, they were able to tell.

Mr Spio-Garbrah is of the view that the party can only do effective and efficient rebranding if the party’s leader understands rebranding, hence imploring the electorate to consider a candidate that the ruling NPP cannot brand as corrupt or incompetent to lead the party.