Kunbour disagrees with Rawlings over NDC's 2016 defeat

Former Minister of Defence in the erstwhile Mahama-led government, Dr Benjamin Kunbour has become the latest leading member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to share his thoughts on why the party lost in the 2016 elections.

The NDC lost the 2016 elections in an unprecedented fashion losing by about one million votes in the presidential election and about 50 seats in the parliamentary election.

The overwhelming defeat, which gave former President John Mahama the unwanted record of being the first incumbent president to lose an election in Ghana, led NDC to form a 13-member committee chaired by a Former Minister of Finance, Professor Kwesi Botchwey to investigate its cause.

Founder of the party, former President J.J. Rawlings has attributed the defeat to the arrogance of power of Mahama's appointees, some of whom he described as "corrupt, uncouth, and uncultured".

READ ALSO: Rawlings marks 35th anniversary of 31st Dec revolution; Shows why NDC lost 2016 elections

In an address to mark the 35th Anniversary of the 31st December Revolution in Accra, Mr Rawlings said “it was obvious a long time ago that we wouldn’t make it. Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. About the time when most were living in the painful reality with stress and anger, that’s when some of us chose to be more impervious to reality. We had lost so much goodwill”, adding that "...Rather than facing why we lost, Rawlings was made a scapegoat".

This statement from the party's founder has resonated with the party's grassroots supporters who have accused party leaders of squandering campaign resources rather than use it to benefit of the party.

But Dr Kunbour is of the opinion that the NDC lost the election for reasons other than the arrogance of power as has been put forward.

"We've been accused of arrogance when in power and that is not true", he stated.

For him, the NDC lost because the failed to make a clear case for their position on the Free SHS debate.

Speaking on Starr FM's morning show on Thursday, Dr Kunbour explained that while the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) was was in a relative comfort zone before the elections with its promise of implementing a Free SHS policy if they won, the NDC failed to advance, convincingly, their position of providing adequate infrastructure for second-cycle schools before making it wholly free.

"I think the NDC did not communicate the Free SHS message well. The NDC believed that the Free SHS had to be progressive and that affected us too. Free SHS at the time should have been free for all", he stated.

Also, he pointed to the problem of erratic power supply, commonly referred to as 'dumsor', which plagued the administration.

According to him, with 'dumsor' lurking and considering its delicate nature, the government put a lot of efforts to solve it which may have taken its focus off other areas and led to the defeat.

"As a matter of fact, 'dumsor' became a priority since that area is very delicate.There are so many officials who knew that when 'dumsor' was not solved immediately, we would lose the elections", he disclosed.