2016 Election: I let my party down - Ofosu Ampofo

Aspiring National Chairman of the opposition NDC party Samuel Ofosu Ampofo has parried accusation that he let the party down in his job as the Director of Finance of the party during the 2016 election which saw the NDC losing power.

According to him, he can’t be held responsible when the party poorly resourced the Election Directorate.

The NDC is said to have relied heavily on then deputy Minister of Information, Felix Ofosu Kwakye’s ‘private’ arrangement during the last general elections to collate the election result which failed the party miserably.

The Botchwey committee a copy of which is available to DAILY GUIDE, said on Page 33 of the 65-page executive summary that the party’s collation was “a complete mess.”

The report said the party appeared to have relied on Kwakye Ofosu’s private arrangement when the main collation platform set up under the supervision of the Election Directorate, headed by Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, could have been strengthened to deliver, saying “the situation brought dysfunctionalism in the party to a head!”

“There were evidently two systems, one party based, and the other, according to Felix Kwakye Ofosu, a private initiative. The Election Directorate evidently regarded the Kwakye Ofosu’s initiative as primary whereas Mr. Kwakye Ofosu and his team regarded it only as backup system,” the report said.

The report said that “for reasons of its obvious importance, we treat the subject fully in the main report,” adding “our general finding is that the party’s collation efforts were a complete mess and a situation that brought the dysfunctionalism in the party to a head!”

Some NDC members have accused Mr Ofosu Ampofo of doing a poor job as Director of Elections and have vowed to ensure that he does not win the National Chairman slot of the NDC during the upcoming congress.

But speaking on Peace FM, Mr Ampofo insists he did what he could best do under the circumstance.

“Let me ask a simple question, those who are criticizing me left, right and centre, they should come and tell me how much investment was made into the party’s election directorate as opposed to the systems that they put in place. I want to be the Chairman to right the wrong.”

Mr. Ofosu Ampofo is slugging it out with four others- Betty Mould Iddrisu, former Attorney General, Alhaji Hudu Yahaya, former General Secretary, Dan Abodakpi, former Trade and Industry Minister and former NDC MP for Keta, as well as Danny Annang, former member of the Council of State, for the chairmanship position.