Buhari, Johnson victories show weak cedi, corruption can't win NDC 2020 – Ras Mubarak

Thursday’s victory by UK’s Conservative Party as well as the retention of President Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria’s national elections in February this year show that Ghana’s main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) cannot count on a weak local currency, corruption in the Akufo-Addo government and complaints of hardships to win the 2020 general elections, the party’s Kumbungu MP, Ras Mubarak has said.

In a short write-up titled: ‘Lessons from UK and Nigeria elections’, Mr Mubarak observed that the UK Labour party, under Jeremy Corbyn, has lost 59 seats so far.

“Historically, a terrible result since the 1930s. This is Labour's worst performance since Clement Atlee led it to win 210 seats in the late 1930s. Labour has also lost 18 traditional seats they've held since 1922. Seat after seat, their traditional strongholds became the Conservative Party's newly-taken seats”.

He continued: “And all of this has happened at a time the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson's poll numbers were historically low and the British economy doing badly. Crime rate is high, the NHS is poorly funded and there is discontent, with the leadership of Boris Johnson and his party generally. Yet he got a majority of 79 seats so far.

“Labour's defeat, was predicted by some pundits, but not in a manner it has happened. Of course, the election was about BREXIT, which labour miscalculated. Unlike the winners (the conservative party), Labour didn't have a clear message about Brexit. And voters, do not want conflicting messages”.

Adducing further inductive evidence to back his assertion, Mr Mubarak saud: “We saw similar trends in Nigeria when everyone thought President Buhari was losing. He'd spent the early part of his presidency abroad on medical treatment. The economy was not doing well. And, yet, he won”.

“Lesson for us here in Ghana is: we should not, and cannot rest on our oars thinking a weaker cedi, a corrupt Akufo-Addo-led NPP government and general hardship are enough to win next year's election.

“We have to work twice as hard, prevent the NPP from voter-suppression, and have a captivating message to the nation. If we can reduce the size of the people who want to be seen following JM [John Mahama] around instead of working at the branches to get the votes out, it would help greatly.

2020 is possible and the nation is counting on us to save the country from the nepotism, blatant disregard for the rule of law, corruption, and unbridled hardships. Ghanaians are looking for hope, our message must be clear. We cannot afford to let the people of Ghana down”.