A National Democratic Congress (NDC) defeated parliamentary candidate for Abuakwa South Victor Smith believes “weak leadership” cost the party the 2016 elections.

Speaking to Morning Starr host Francis Abban Wednesday, the former Ghana High Commissioner to the UK stated the NDC “had victory on our hands” but its intelligence system failed to anticipate a possible defeat.

“Weak leadership could have cost us,” Ambassador Smith remarked, stating “I believe that we had victory on our hands. It could not be just political leadership at the presidency.”

The NDC lost the 2016 elections miserably to then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), making John Mahama the first ever sitting president to have lost an election in the Fourth Republic.

Ambassador Smith described the NDC defeat as “a hurricane” which could have been easily averted if “Mahama had been timeously advised.”

“We lost it as a team to have anticipated if we had kept our ears on the ground… we would have anticipated a hurricane coming,” he added. “There were some mistakes that if we had tackled timeously, we (NDC) would have won the elections.”

Mr. Smith is optimistic the NDC will bounce back come election 2020.
“In time, we (NDC) will tackle the little blunders and mistakes that cost us during the elections,” he opined.

According to him, former president Mahama is the best “gamble” for the NDC going into the next presidential election.

“If the NDC wants to win election 2020, it has to be John Mahama. We campaigned on John Mahama’s achievement and he will be the best to run in 2020,” Mr. Smith said.