Political parties put spin on positions on ballot

The dust has finally settled and the seven presidential candidates for the December polls now know their positions on the ballot paper. It was something that both the political parties and the electorate anxiously looked forward to.

The Convention Peoples Party (CPP) took the number one slot on the ballot paper, followed by the National Democratic Party (NDP) for number two, National Democratic Congress (NDC) for number three, Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) for number four, New Patriotic Party (NPP) for number five, the Peoples National Convention (PNC) for number six and the final slot for the Independent candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah.

The ruling NDC is already campaigning with John 3: 16, saying its candidate’s name is John, the position is 3 and the election is being held in [20]16. The opposition NPP is interpreting its position as indicative of GRACE, a five letter word. According to the NDC, their 3rd position and the word ‘win’ have three letters which means President John Dramani Mahama is winning the December polls.

Indeed, few minutes after the representatives of the presidential candidates voted for positions on the ballot paper, images and slogans popped up on social media.

For instance, the New Patriotic Party again has images of what they describe as ‘Hi Five’ with a stretched palm indicating they are 5th on the ballot.

The Convention People’s Party claims its first position on the ballot is only a reminder that the CPP has changed the fortunes of Ghana before and will do it again, and the number one is obvious that the party would be number one on the results sheet. But the Progressive People’s Party’s Dr. Papa kwesi Nduom, who is number four, believes it means ‘Nduom 4[for] Ghana”.

So as it is, these images and slogans suggest the presidential candidates’ position on the ballot is the magic wand in the upcoming elections. But is that a reality? Well only time will tell especially if opinion polls and predictions in the recent US elections are anything to go by.