NDC turning into NPP, now too elitist – Rawlings

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National Democratic Congress (NDC) founder, Jerry John Rawlings continues to worry that his party has lost its identity.

He said at the 39th-anniversary durbar to mark the June 4 uprising, that it now resembled an older incarnation of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

“Our party has almost become a clone of what the other side used to be. Elitism and gross display of affluence have almost engulfed us and as I stated in 2017, we are still at the crossroads.”

Mr. Rawlings said persons within the NDC were now distorting the essence of the party he founded.

“Unfortunately, we have consistently distorted the history of June 4 and 31^st December mainly for parochial reasons… a great deal of the distortion of facts concerning the history that eventually gave birth to our party the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has come from our own, from within.”

He said persons with “deeply malicious motives within our party have over the past 12 years especially, consistently spewed falsehood about our own history and attempted to downplay the story of June 4.”

Mr. Rawlings also said the persons, whom he declined to name, “have shamelessly disassociated themselves from our history in a bid to create the impression that it is a blot on the image of the party.

“Ironically the party that was seen as elitist and detached from the grassroots rather associated itself with the grassroots to win the last elections while we chose the elitist route and lost miserably.”

He described this as “suicidal” and the cause of the NDC’s woes.

Identity crisis

The NDC suffered the worst election defeat from an incumbency position in 2016.

Mr. Rawlings has consistently blamed this loss on the party’s identity crisis.

Last month, he called on his party to embrace the politics of conscience, truth and the power of conviction as it seeks to return to power in 2020.

He said the party’s failure to apply its values resulted in the 2016 election defeat.

The strength of the NDC, the former President, said, lay in attaining political power through the power of the people, not the power of the affluent.

Party Overhaul

At the last June 4 commemoration, in 2017, Mr. Rawlings called for a complete overhaul of his party.

According to him, this is the only way the party could come back strong for the next election in 2020.

He said there was a need for new leaders with integrity to lead the party which he claimed lost “disgracefully” in the December 7, 2016 general election because of greed, corruption and “betrayal of the values of June 4.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citinewsroom.com/Ghana