Former President Jerry John Rawlings has charged the Volta Regional caucus of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Parliament to champion the spirit of truth and candour as post mortem is performed on the December 2016 electoral loss.

According to the founder of the NDC integrity factor in the party has suffered.

“It has been ambushed and held hostage. The time has come to free the truth,” he said when the Volta Regional caucus of the NDC called on him at his office on Thursday.

Mr Rawlings called for sincerity in speech, thought and action as the party sought to identify the root causes of its electoral loss saying, “The time to free the truth is now”.

“What our supporters need is candour. If you want them to stay united, if you want them to be a little strong, all you can offer them now is candour. Don’t engage in political talk of the past,” the former President said.

Responding to commentary that he was gunning to take over the NDC, President Rawlings said, “ I wish I could say yes, but I think it sounds better in my ear to say that I want God to come and lead us because of the integrity factor. God can be found in the truth.”

The former President said the misuse of Executive power by some people had with time led to the detachment of the party from the people, stating the intoxicating effects of power had made many leaders of the party and government impervious to reality.

“We adopted certain habits which were going to lead to failure and we were not seeing it. The mistakes were too obvious,” he stated.

The Member of Parliament for Ho West, Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah who led the delegation thanked the former President for the audience and indicated that the purpose of the meeting was to open channels of communication so they could tap into his rich experience.