Member of Parliament for the Odododiodoo, Â Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, has said the National Democratic Congress(NDC) lost the 2016 elections due to complacency.
According to Mr. Vanderpuye, the party took certain things for granted and this adversely affected the chances of retaining powet after the 2016 elections.
"We thought we would win the elections and did not do certain things we did in 2002 to ensure victory for the NDC at all levels,"he said on Citi FM.
Mr. Vanderpuye who was a member of the Kwesi Botwe led Committee set up by the NDC to investigate the cause of the party’s historic defeat in the December 7 polls said,"for us to return to power, it is important to do things differently at all levels."
Personally he said, he underrated his opponent till he realized things were not going as expected and had to put in more effort to secure the mandate he got.
"It was the same for most of my colleagues who were also complacent and thought as a government they have done a lot of work, from infrastructure to social change in Ghana and if you studied factors that led to winning elections in the past, there was no way we could have lost the elections,"he stated.
In 2016, he said the perceptions and ideals of the Ghanaian voter changed from those historic things to other issues and that was what led to the defeat.
He added that, former President John Mahama should be maintained at the flagbearer to lead the party in the next elections.
"John Mahama cannot be blamed for the defeat in 2016 as every party member had a role to play in ensuring victory.The committee did not find any problem with the candidate,"he said.
He said, one of the areas they lost was youth organization which was not adequately done and needs to be improved upon in order to return the party into power.
Another problem that contributed to the defeat he said was the disconnect at the grassroots especially amongst regional executives and the Members of Parliament.
He added that government appointees did not relate well with party people at the grassroots and that played a major role in our defeat.
The party he stressed, needs to take steps to reconnect to its social democratic roots in order to get back to winning power.
Going forward, he said, it is important to admit that they all made a mistake and take the opportunity to learn and move on to the next elections to ensure victory.
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