A former Ghana High Commissioner to the UK, Victor Smith, has stated that the failure of former vice president Kwesi Amissah-Arthur to swiftly deal with Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s 170 questions during electioneering could be one of the reasons the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the 2016 elections.

Dr. Bawumia in the build up to the December 7, 2016 general elections challenged Amissah-Arthur and the then government to respond officially to what he described as “salient” points he raised in a public lecture he delivered on the ‘true state of the economy’.

Instead of comprehensively reacting to the 170 queries from the former deputy governor of the Bank of Ghana, Amissah-Arthur, a former governor of the same institution, chose to describe the former’s claims as lies but failed to give a detailed analysis to counter the claims.

This according to Ambassador Smith might have been one of the mistakes the government committed in its preparation for the 2016 elections.

He said this Wednesday on Morning Starr in an interaction with Francis Abban where he was asked whether he thought Mr. Amissah-Arthur should have responded to the 170 questions.

“Why not?” replied Ambassador Smith, adding “I don’t know what informed his decision not to, if he didn’t. But I think once Dr. Bawumia has gone out and put up all those things…somebody should have taken him on.”

“It can even be the Finance Minister. It didn’t have to be the vice president and he could have decided that someone else should do it.

We should have responded to it. As to who should have done it, if he had done it the vice president it would be good. But somebody should have dealt with it boot for boot if you like. Maybe that may have also contributed to the mistakes.”