Return to social democratic roots – Botchwey Committee to NDC

The Professor Kwesi Botchwey led-Committee that probed the defeat of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in last year’s elections has recommended among other things, that the party must return to the social democratic principles upon which it was founded.

Also in the 455-page report of its findings, code-named “listening to the grassroots” the committee asked the party to review its biometric register and the expanded Electoral College urging the party to take steps to restore the integrity of the register.

Speaking at the presentation of the report, the Chairman of the committee, Prof Kwesi Botchwey was hopeful that the recommendations will be a springboard to help the party recapture power in 2020.

“We did a very comprehensive job of listening to everybody.

“Everybody spoke frankly and honestly. We do make a number of recommendations including a recommendation that the party puts together a group of credible and eminent members of our party to undertake a peace-making and healing tour of the country and visit all key sectors and constituencies. We believe this is extremely important for purposes of creating the necessary conditions for any serious work that needs to be done in the way of the party restructuring and renewal.

“We also have a recommendation that the party takes steps to restore the integrity of the biometric register and the expanded Electoral College. Additionally, we recommend that steps be taken to restore the capacity and effectiveness of the party’s organs, especially to the branch level. We believe these organs are most critical because they are the party’s immediate connections with the people. We are, after all, a truly mass party.

“We also have recommendations on ways in which we can and must improve the collation of election results. We also believe that steps ought to be taken by the party to reconnect itself properly to our social democratic roots and the principal actors in these social democratic roots – the social forces that populate our social democratic base.”