Mahama has 'edge' over Akufo-Addo – Presidency

The Flagstaff House has said President John Mahama “has an edge over Nana Akufo-Addo” in the forthcoming presidential election, contrary to a pre-election survey conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), which said seven out of every 10 Ghanaians thought the country was being steered in the wrong direction by the Mahama administration and, thus, craving for a change in government.

A senior research fellow at CDD-Ghana, Daniel Armah Attoh, addressing journalists in Accra, said: “Ghanaians place unemployment, electricity, and education on the top policy priority list they want the 2016 polls to address, and yet, a clear majority assesses government’s performance in addressing their policy priorities negatively”.

“Indeed, a narrow majority seems to believe that another political party can do a better job. A solid majority of Ghanaians claim the following factors will have a great deal or some influence on the choices of candidates and parties in the 2016 polls – bad roads, government corruption, power outages, high prices of foodstuffs, access to medical care, use of abusive language, and posturing of politicians.

“However, Ghanaians say the following factors will have no influence on their vote choices, that is, whether a candidate offers them a gift or not, whether the candidate shares in their religious faith, or the candidate comes from their home region.

“The mood of the electorate going into the 2016 polls is broadly negative. Seven in 10 Ghanaians believe that the country is going in the wrong direction and nearly half blame this completely on mostly the government. Nonetheless, Ghanaians are split in their evaluation of the job performance of the president and Members of Parliament. Nearly half approve the overall job performance of the president and their respective MPs but the rest disapprove.”

However, Mr Kenneth Wujangi, Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of Operations at the Flagstaff House has said, despite the CDD’s findings, Mr Mahama is ahead of Mr Akufo-Addo, as far as his (Wujangi’s) checks on the grounds were concerned.

“Our candidate His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, as I went round, has an edge over the major opposition candidate Nana Akufo-Addo, but there is still some work to be done, we need not be complacent and the battle is over when the whistle goes and says ‘you have won’ but because of what has been done on the field, he [Mr Mahama] has an edge far over Nana Akufo-Addo,” Mr Wujangi told journalists on Thursday August 11.

“At the end of the day, it depends on who does which survey, it depends on where in Ghana the person goes to get his data and his information from. If one limits himself to city life – you sit in your hotel and conduct a survey – you’ll get results that pertain to sitting in a hotel and conducting your survey but I went to the ground…”

Mr Wujangi said there are numerous projects in connection with roads, water, schools, among others to secure Mr Mahama and the NDC a second term in officer.