Assessment of manifestos by political parties not highly regarded – CARE Ghana

Pressure group Care for Free and Fair Elections Ghana has divulged that the assessments on manifestoes by political parties are not really regarded because it might be an effort to sway electorates towards their party for a win in the elections.

This position by the group follows the move by the National Democratic Congress to assess in detail the ruling party’s promises, achievements, and failures. At the end of its presentation, the NDC scored the ruling NPP party 14% in the fulfillment of its promises.

Executive Secretary of CARE Ghana, David Kumi, in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, has however opined that their exercise was purely political.

“During the election period, a lot of people bring out their research on the governance of the country. For some people, this exercise may look like the politicians are trying to sway electorates towards their political party so they can win political power. For us as non-politicians such research from politicians seem to be only political”, he said.

He furthered, however, that the group will not reject the NDC’s finding as it can help them make further research for the benefit of the country.

“We do not reject their [NDC] findings because we will have to make our research to identify the motive behind that political party’s research. We have to compare and contrast to make our own inferences. We will not begrudge the NDC on their research because when you compare their findings to the happenings in Ghana, you will realize that the ruling party made a lot of promises while they have been unable to fulfill most of them”, he explained.

He exemplified his point by stating that while the Government’s effort in the planting for food and jobs projects is applaudable, the same cannot be said for the One District, One Factory (1D1F) project.

“The ruling party promised One District, One Factory (1D1F). As we speak the only factory I can attest to, is the Ekumfi fruit juice factory. I have also heard of the Government supporting existing factories through the stimulus package. However, that was not the promise given to Ghanaians prior to elections. The promise was that there will be the building of factories in every district”, he added.