Former President Jerry John Rawlings says the National Democratic Congress (NDC) lost the 2016 elections before the December 7 polls because of the corrupt, uncouth and uncultured actions of government appointees.

In an address on Saturday at the 35th anniversary of the 31st December Revolution held at the Black Star Square, President Rawlings accused government officials of attempting to blame him for the humiliating loss at the polls.

The NDC founder said the party had lost the moral high-ground to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and this contributed to their humiliating defeat.

He said: "Ladies and gentlemen, we lost the election way before the December 7. We persistently and unrepentantly stayed to the humiliating defeat despite the several warnings.
"My honest wish was for corrective measures to have been taken to avert this defeat."

"Some handlers and manipulators who have profited from the past two government want to promote a lie about the the reason for our failure in order to perpetuate their hold on the NDC party."

President Rawlings asserted that the NDC's defeat at the polls was obvious because the party had lost goodwill from the masses.

"I don't think I was the only one who saw the writing on the wall. Many of us, from our very own party, I believe could see the writing on the wall that we were going to lose the past election," he said.

"It was obvious a long time ago that we would make our general negativity, impunity, disrespect and corruption for taking us further and further down the hill about the time when most were living in a painful reality of stress and anger chose to be more impervious to the reality. We have lost some goodwill."