A Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has disclosed to Power FM News that they are not intimidated by results of a research carried out by the Political Science Department of the University Of Ghana that seemed to be beautifying the governance of Nana Akufo-Addo.
the research organised by the University revealed that majority of Ghanaians will vote for the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) if elections were held today.
But Koku Anyidoho on Wednesday night noted that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has not been able to live up to expectation, “but if some research says Ghanaians are satisfied with the government, we (NDC) won’t downplay the survey.”
He said the Akufo-Addo government had deceived Ghanaians since power was handed to them from the NDC because the youth cannot get jobs to do thereby soaring the rate of unemployment.
“Since NDC lost the election, I have personally spoken to more than five thousand people and they say they have regretted voting for the NPP.Market women are being sacked from pavements and are denied their livelihoods, tens of thousands of people queue to get job at the Immigration centre that is looking for only 500 applicants to employ. Did the government buy the forms for the applicants as Sammy Awuku said?” he questioned.
when asked whether the NDC doubted the research, Mr. Anyidoho said: “I have not seen a proper research carried out in 10 days. They said they interviewed 5000 people. I have not seen some before. We will analyse hit and work toward it.”
Assuring that they will not trash the survey, he posited that “We will not discard the research but we the NDC people are not afraid. Yes, Nana Akufo-Addo won but the dynamics can change. What happened in December 2016 and now, the dynamics can change.”
The Survey
52.7% of Ghanaians, according to the research, said they will vote for the NPP while 33.1% said their votes will go to the NDC.
The survey, which was carried out by the Political Science Department of the school, revealed that government received an approval rating of 62.1% after one year in office.
The survey was carried out in 250 electoral areas and 50 constituencies from the 10 regions with 5000 respondents.
Government Doing well
Dr Bossman Asare, Head of the Political Science Department of the University said 56% of the people interviewed said they voted for the NPP in the 2016 elections and almost 36 percent said they voted for the NDC.
The respondents also held the view that the policies that were implemented by NPP government were satisfactory and that government had demonstrated its capacity to deal with some of the challenges confronting the country.
The research also indicated the government’s Free SHS policy was a good policy despite its challenges, receiving the highest ratings of 77.6%, followed by the fight against illegal mining. Others also appreciated the restoration of the teachers and nurses’ trainees allowance.
“Many voters indicated that they thought it was a very…very good thing and really identified with it,” Dr. Asare said.
He continued that “Although the NHIS for example is not so perfect we heard the voters making very clear that they thought that it has seen some revival.
“The government’s popularity is almost 62.1% [and] what this actually means that the government’s popularity is OK but can be better than that. So this should tell you that maybe there are still some issues Ghanaians want the government should address.”
However, some respondents expressed reservations on issues concerning unemployment and others.