Yaw Boateng Gyan, former National Organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress
A former national organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Yaw Boateng Gyan has predicted another humiliating defeat for former President John Mahama in the 2020 general election if the deep cracks within the party are not resolved.
“I do not think former President Mahama will win if he decides to contest the 2020 elections or any other candidate will win if as a party, we do not resolve our crisis before the elections,” the former national organiser stated.
Mr. Boateng Gyan who said these on pro-NDC station, Montie FM Thursday morning said the party had serious crisis in the run up to the 2016 elections but most of party bigwigs behaved like proverbial ostriches.
He said he will always support the candidature of former President Mahama for the 2020 elections because he is currently the most popular person in NDC.
However, he reiterated Mahama cannot win the next general election if members of the party continue to deny that they have serious problems.
“We refused or failed to face reality or accept the fact that we were in crisis ahead of the 2016 elections but rather concentrated on the crisis of other parties,” he stated.
Whilst in government, the NDC presented itself as united party only for it to be badly exposed after last year’s elections with its members engaging blame games and acrimonious altercations.
Some party groups have even called for the resignation of all the national executives to pave way for an independent investigation into what led to the party’s embarrassing defeat in the polls.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) defeated incumbent President Mahama of the NDC with a margin of over 1.2 million votes in the December 7, 2016 polls, making the latter Ghana’s first one-term president.
Just after the polls, the NDC 2016 Elections Coordinator, Kofi Adams, accepted responsibility for the party’s abysmal performance.
He blamed the defeat on what he termed ‘IT failure.’
However, at its recent inaugural ceremony in Accra, the Crusade for Probity and Accountability (CPA), a pro-NDC group, asked the leadership of the party to step down to pave way for probe into the party’s electoral defeat.
In a statement, Convener of CPA, Dr. Kwesi Djokoto, said: “In the interest of the party, the national party leadership should offer the best Christmas gift to the party, especially its grassroot supporters, by communicating to the Council of Elders their decision to step aside en bloc at the earliest day possible.
“This will trigger the much-needed inquest into the activities of the party at the branch, constituency, regional and national levels that led to the miserable defeat. An accurate diagnosis is the first step towards recovery.”
