‘Dumsor’ Was NDC’s Greatest Setback in 2016 Elections – Joyce Bawah

Joyce Bawah Mogtari, spokesperson for the John Mahama campaign team, has acknowledged that the prolonged power outage, locally known as ‘Dumsor,’ was the National Democratic Congress (NDC)’s biggest challenge in the 2016 election.

According to the former Deputy Transport Minister, the NDC was focused on finding long-term solutions to the power issues rather than seeking political gain.

“I believe strongly, and maybe because I’m very close to the campaign, that in 2016, one of our biggest misfortunes was the fact that we had these crippling power outages. I mean look, the whole of Ghana suffered enormously from those outages and people were up in arms. Yes, maybe we could even have offered solutions in a much quicker time, but it wasn’t that easy to do,” she said.

In an interview on Accra-based Channel One TV, she admitted that the impact of ‘Dumsor’ caused frustration among Ghanaians and contributed to their loss in the election.

“This was a country that over the years depended largely on Akosombo Dam. We used to have crawlers telling us about the water levels, and then the rain patterns changed, and then climate issues happened. And somehow, it threw us completely overboard. Look, it was not in Mr Mahama’s interest for that whole protracted power outage to have actually occurred, but it happened,” she noted.

However, Joyce Bawah said the NDC has learned lessons from the experience and pledged that flagbearer John Mahama is committed to addressing the crisis in the energy sector if elected President in December.