National Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress Kofi Portuphy says contradictions in communicating campaign messages to the electorate, cost them the elections.
The party lost by more than a million votes to the then opposition New Patriotic Party at the presidential polls, and lost nearly 50 seats in parliament.
The party hierarchy subsequently formed a committee led by Professor Kwesi Botchwey to look into the reasons for the defeat. Among other things, the committee said efforts should be made to improve the intellectual base of the party, so their messages would be well explained to the electorates.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Ghana Institute of Social Democracy, Mr Portuphy said the lack of proper coherence in getting their messages to the electorates cost them victory. He said lessons have been learnt from that experience and should they secure victory in 2020, measures will be put in place to ensure the “contradictions” do not again happen.
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On some of the reasons why the school was established, Mr Portuphy said it will help explain their ideology better to first-time voters interested in becoming members of the party.
“We have recognized the fact that as a social democratic party, we have had lots of setbacks in terms of the ideas we propagate, what we stand for and what we have done so far over 20 years.”
He said the party will use the institute to bring light to the core values that have shaped them for the past years.
On his party, General Secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia said the voter is not only “sophisticated” but “discerning” so messages bordering on ethnicity, religion do not add anything to them. What they are interested in, he explained, are the policies and programs that will improve their lives.
The Acting Rector of the school is Dr Williams Hadzie, formerly of the University of Ghana.
