The National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by President John Mahama lost the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections because the party neglected its moral standing, former president Jerry John Rawlings has said.

According to him, the massive defeat of the party was long expected, owing to the actions and inactions of government officials and other executives of the party.

President Mahama during the elections managed to poll 44.40 per cent of valid votes cast whereas Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) obtained 53.85 per cent to win the elections.

Addressing a ceremony to mark the 35th anniversary of the 31st December revolution at the Revolution Square in Accra on Saturday, Mr Rawlings said: “I don’t think I was the only one who saw the writing on the wall. Many people from our very own party, I believe, could see the writing on the wall that we were going to lose this past election.

“It was obvious a long time ago that we wouldn’t make it. Our general negativity, impunity, disrespect, and corruption was taking us further and further downhill. About the time when most were living in the painful reality with stress and anger, that’s when some of us chose to be more impervious to reality. We had lost so much goodwill.”

He added: “I believe that this time around our people have seen through it and we will embark on the right steps to regain our moral high ground, the moral high ground that we have abandoned and on which the new leader (Nana Akufo Addo) is now standing.”