NDC fights Legon report

Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Boamah Otokunor, has questioned the credibility of results of a political survey conducted in December 2018 by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana.

According to Mr. Otokunor, the survey was done by conduits of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) working at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana.

The survey, which sampled about 5,000 Ghanaians nationwide, indicated that President Akufo-Addo was in a position to defeat former President John Dramani Mahama should elections be held today, among others.

A total of 2,481 respondents, representing 49.6%, said they would vote for President Akufo-Addo while 1,667 respondents, representing 33.3%, said they would vote for former President John Mahama.

Mr. Otokunor told Joy FM yesterday that the findings might not be entirely factual, alleging that the survey was conducted by members of the ruling NPP.

“Our search has indicated that this is not a report that can be owned by the department but perhaps some individuals who work in the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana. In fact, we know very well all the leaders of the research and we know their political leanings,” he said.

“We know they belong to the NPP. You know Dr. Bossman was leading the research last year and in no time we saw that he got some favour from the government,” he pointed out.

In Ghana, parties – both in opposition and government – usually do not want to accept results of polls that do not go in their favour.

A similar survey by the same unit before the 20016 general election predicted that the then opposition NPP was going to defeat the governing NDC in the general election with a wide margin.

“Our recent past history shows that a ruling party, which has ignored such concerns coming out of polls had done so at their own peril,” according to the survey report.

The report, therefore, called on the major political parties, which were affected by the survey, not to underestimate the accuracy of the report and take voters for granted.

Meanwhile, the Communications Director for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Yaw Buabeng Asamoah, has said that though the party welcomes the report of the research, it will not rely solely on it going into the 2020 general elections.

He stressed the need to “welcome efficient polls in our political landscape.”

The respondents were randomly selected to respond to a number of questions on government’s economic policies, current state of governance, fight against corruption, social infrastructure and capacity to deliver on campaign promises.

It revealed that the double-track system under the free senior high school (SHS) policy education system turned out to be the most disliked policy among electorate, while the policy on the fight against galamsey emerged the second.

The report also revealed that voters were indifferent to the government’s drone project, while a significant number of respondents expressed disappointment at efforts by government to create jobs.

According to the survey, despite many employment-related programmes initiated by the current government, opinions were still divided on whether the employment situation was improving.