Dr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah standing by an NDC signpost during his research in the Yendi Constituency
The leader of the team of researchers from the University of Ghana that predicted that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flag bearer Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will win the December 7 presidential election, says he is living in fear.
According to Dr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah who is a senior lecturer at the Political Science Department, he is being threatened with death by some supporters of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) since he released the report.
“I am being inundated with information that some NDC supporters are threatening my life since I got involved in the opinion polls that said Nana Akufo-Addo will win the election on December 7; and I am not taking the issue of death lightly,” he told DAILY GUIDE via telephone yesterday.
Prior Warning
He said some of his family members, friends and colleagues have been advising him to take precautionary measures saying, “They tell me not to take the threats for a joke and I have assured them that matters of life and death cannot be overlooked.”
He said he got to know that the threats could be real when one of his family members informed him about what some NDC supporters were planning on a social media platform they have created for their campaign.
NDC Platform
“There is a social media platform being run by some of the NDC members and one of my family members happen to be on that platform. It was through him I got to know for the first time what they were planning to do to me,” according to Dr. Owusu-Mensah.
Asked whether he had informed the police about the alleged threats, Dr. Owusu-Mensah said, “The threats are not coming directly to my phone or to me personally so I don’t have any physical evidence to give to the police as I speak to you.”
German Chancellor
He said that the threats heightened when after releasing the report, NDC communicators started circulating a picture he took with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and some opposition NPP leaders, including Nana Akufo-Addo, on a trip to Germany.
He said the NDC communicators together with some of the party’s regional and national executives as well as the pro-government newspapers incited their supporters against him and that might have incensed those people to issue the alleged threats.
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung
Explaining the Germany issue, Dr. Owusu-Mensah said he has been working with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) which is associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and which promotes conservatism and liberalism.
He said as part of the mandate, KAS cooperates with governmental institutions, political parties, civil society organizations and handpicked elites, building strong partnerships and since the NPP shares its ideals, they have that cooperation with the opposition party.
“It was during one of such partnerships that I went to Germany and met the NPP leaders and we had that photograph taken with the German Chancellor, but the NDC people are circulating the picture to make me look like I am working for their opponent,” the senior lecturer posited.
“I still stand by the research findings. We went to the field to collect data before coming out with what we saw. I believe next week is not too far away. Let’s have patience and wait to see if we are right or wrong,” he said.
Research Results
The academic and his team of researchers predicted that the opposition party would record 49.9%, while the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) had an approval rating of 39.9%.
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the research continued, would record 5% while the Convention People’s Party (CPP) would likely receive 1.7%; the National Democratic Party (NDP) 1.7% and 0.2% for the People’s National Convention (PNC).
Three per cent of respondents of the quantitative and qualitative survey, the researchers said, were not ready to vote for an independent candidate while 0.9% of the respondents failed to give an answer.
By William Yaw Owusu