The recent survey of the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) has revealed that the majority of Ghanaians believe the country is heading in a wrong direction.
The survey captured the mood of the respondents who were disillusioned about the state of hopelessness in the country, with a good majority of them holding unemployment, power crisis and education as key priorities that should drive the policy direction of candidates in this year’s elections.
“The mood of the electorate going into the 2016 polls is broadly negative. Seven in 10 Ghanaians believe the country is going in the wrong direction; and nearly half blame this ‘completely’ or ‘mostly’ on the government. Only a quarter think the country is headed in the right direction,” Senior Research Fellow at CDD, Daniel Armah Attoh, told journalists in Accra yesterday during the presentation of the report on ‘Popular opinions on issues at stake in the 2016 election.’
CDD said opinions of 2,400 adults of voting age were sampled between July 2 and 18, 2016.
The respondents claimed that although the economic conditions are not the best, their voting pattern would not be swayed by gifts from politicians.
They were spread across 163 districts and 291 towns and villages in the country.
The survey also indicated that a little over one-third of Ghanaians are of the opinion that their living conditions are better than that of others.
Majority of the respondents, Mr Attoh said, are optimistic that their living conditions would be improved at least a year from now.
This category of respondents claimed that the hardship was largely because the government had performed poorly in the delivery of a range of social goods.
To improve their living conditions, a narrow majority of Ghanaians still believe that a new government would do a better job when voted into power.
“Indeed a narrow majority believe that another political party can do a better job and factors such as bad roads, government corruption, high prices of goods and others would influence the outcome of the votes…,” Mr Armah Attoh said.
Assessing the performance of President John Mahama, his approval rating took a dip.
“Nonetheless, Ghanaians are split in their evaluation of the job performance of the president and Members of Parliament (MPs). Nearly half approve the overall job performance of the president and their respective MPs, but the rest disapprove,” Armah Attoh said.
Influential Factors
According to the survey report, the majority of Ghanaians have said factors, including candidates’ offer of gifts, their religious faith, or the region a candidate comes from, will not influence the way they will vote during the December 7 general elections.
According to them, they would rather concentrate on candidates who would offer to fix bad roads, power crisis, high prices of food, among other national problems.
“Nearly four in every 10 Ghanaians say they vote on the basis of the merits of the candidate, and that party affiliation is secondary,” it said, adding, “A majority of Ghanaians ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ with the statement that they vote for the parliamentary candidate of the political party that advances ideas they share.”
The survey findings which respondents were selected nationally said, “Solid majorities of Ghanaians claim the following factors would have a great deal of or some influence on their choice of candidates and parties in 2016: bad roads, government corruption, power outages, high prices of food, access to medical care, use of abusive language, posture of politicians, etc.”
Priority Issues
The report said Ghanaians place unemployment, electricity and education on top of policy priorities they want the 2016 polls to address.
“And yet, a clear majority assesses government’s performance in addressing their policy priorities negatively,” it said, adding, “Indeed, a narrow majority seems to believe that another political party can do a better job of addressing their first most important problem.”
The report said, “Nearly half approve the overall job performance of the president and their respective MPs, but the rest disapprove.”
Economic situation
According to the report, “Majority of Ghanaians offer highly negative evaluation of national economic (7 in 10) and their own living conditions (65 percent), adding, “However, more are optimistic rather than pessimistic about the prospect of improvement a year from now.”
It said the government received poor grades “from a clear majority of Ghanaians across a range of macroeconomic indicators: narrowing income gaps, keeping prices down, creating jobs, improving living standards of the poor and managing the economy.”
It continued, “Majorities rate the government as ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ bad in the delivery of a range of economic and social goods: providing reliable electricity, combating corruption, ensuring enough food for everyone, providing water and sanitation, improving basic health services and maintaining bridges/roads and addressing educational needs.
“Government performance is somewhat positive with respect to crime and violence prevention, where a minority (4 in 10) offers negative assessment.”
By William Yaw Owusu