Veteran Ghanaian politician Freddie Blay has reflected on the party’s 2024 electoral defeat, attributing it largely to a disconnect between the leadership and its base.
“I kept on saying that maybe, from my own perspective, the party did not carry along—or the leadership, the government did not carry along—the bulk of our apartment to support and be with and explain the hard measures we had to take to resettle the economy,” Blay explained to Serwaa Amihere on GHOne monitored by MyNewsGH.
He pointed to economic policies, including the controversial E-levy, as necessary yet poorly communicated decisions.
“Some of the measures the government took were quite hard, costly, and the votes were the votes. That’s what I’m saying.”
Blay likened the implementation of these measures to administering bitter medicine without proper explanation.
“It is difficult for many of us to swallow bitter pills, even for our health. Sometimes we do that when your doctor is administering very difficult medication… some even spit it out.”
He believes that if more effort had been made to engage and educate party supporters—particularly the estimated two million voters who abstained—the outcome could have been different.
“If we had taken time… to explain to them, taken time to carry them along… we wouldn’t be singing the same song,” he said.
