Quality of political campaign bad for dev’t - ISSER

The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has decried the quality of political campaign between the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), urging the two political parties to elevate campaign discussions from trivial matters to core issues of development.

The call comes in the wake of an increase in accusations and counter accusations between the NDC and the NPP in recent weeks.

The main medium through which the competing claims of which party did what and when and has the best policies for Ghanaians has been news conferences.

Speaking to Class News’ Naa Dedei Tettey in an interview, Director of ISSER Professor Felix Asante said political campaigns ahead of the general elections have assumed a rather trivial note with important issues relegated to the background.

“We find the discussion not healthy for the country’s development. We shouldn’t forget we are a lower income [nation] and we should aspire for good things for the citizenry. So I’m not impressed with the type of discussions where one party is accusing the other of particular expenditure, while the other one is saying…the important thing is that expenditure is high, debt is high, and I think that is where we need to focus our discussion,” he stated, adding: “We should move away from ‘When I was in power I built 10 schools and somebody built two schools; when I was in power I built this hospital and etc.’ Hospitals and schools without teachers and [nurses and doctors] are not of importance. For the past 10, 15 years, we talk about building schools but we keep on seeing every year that the quality of education is getting poorer so, then, what is in the building?”