49% of Ghanaians will vote for incumbent MPs if elections were held today - Research reveals

A research conducted by the Political Science department of the University of Ghana has revealed that about 49 percent of Ghanaians in the 275 constituencies across the country will vote for their incumbent Members of Parliament if the election 2020 were organized today.

At the presentation of a survey which assessed the 275 Members of Parliament – perspectives from the Constituencies, Senior Lecturer and head of the research team, Dr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah explained that the research was ideally aimed at seeking the views electorates held about their Members of Parliament.

Per the findings of the research, 49 percent of Ghanaians in the 275 constituencies across the country indicated that they would vote for their incumbent Member of Parliament should the elections be held today, whereas 42.6 percent responded negative and 7.9 percent remained undecided.

After almost three years in office, only 95 Members of Parliament would retain their seats if the elections were organized today. The respondents scored their incumbent MPs from 90 percent to as low as 10 percent.

They also based their judgment on the level of development in their various constituencies, the degree of responsiveness of their Member of Parliament, the corrupt acts their MP has been cited for, how often the MP visits amongst others.

The study further indicated that 42 percent of Ghanaians would want their Members of Parliament to contest again in the election 2020 and about 46 percent rejected the idea of having their incumbent MP contesting again.

According to Dr Owusu-Mensah, the survey was carried out by “66 personnel in all the 275 constituencies in the country. With 100 respondents each from the 275 constituencies who are 18 years and above”.

The figures were presented on Monday, June 10, 2019, at the University of Ghana Law Faculty.