President Nana Akufo-Addo
A University of Ghana (UG) Political Science Department survey report has revealed that at least 61.7 percent believe in the economic policies and programmes of the President Nana Akufo-Addo’s Government.
In the report released on Thursday, November 26, 2020, the Department said “this election is solely contested on policy-based issues.”
It noted that in the December 7, 2020 election, the economic issues have been framed around tangible and implementable policies.
For the Ghanaians voter, their choice is for the candidate who has the capacity to carry through with transformational policies, he said.
He noted “therefore, it did not come as a surprise when 62.2% of voters said the Free Senior High School program offers hope to their future aspirations.”
“It is interesting from voters’ respondents captured in Table 5 that the banking restructuring exercise that was greeted with cynicism and lamentations by the affected customers and business owners would have no effect on voters’ choices at the polls (. 7%) (See table 6),” the report stated.
“The voters have confirmed the policy-driven voting paradigm in contemporary elections,” it said.
“A majority of Ghanaian voters said they believe in the policies and programs being implemented by the incumbent government ( 61.7%). Only a minority 26.8% expressed lack of faith in the incumbent’s policies and 11.5% declined to make a response.”
According to the report, “these voters who expressed satisfaction with the management of the economy by the incumbent believe that the signs are showing that the economy is bouncing back after it suffered some turbulence under the power of COVID-19 (51.4%).”
“It is a minority (22.8%) that have experienced worse economic performance by the incumbent and 10% said there has been no significant change in the economy since the last election (See Table 7),” it said.
” As it was in previous elections, voters have been following the management of the economic. They are able to examine the changes that have occurred since the last elections (since 4 years ago).”
” Their assessment of government performance over the management of the economy has a considerable influence on their voting decision.”
Overall, the report noted, 65.1% of the voters rated the government’s management of the economic above the mean score – for instance, (19.3%), (24.1%) and (21.7%) of the voters said that the performance of the government with respect to the economy is excellent. very good and good respectively (See Table 8).
By Melvin Tarlue