NPP ACCEPTS SURVEY REPORTS

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Friday, August 12, 2016

The opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) says it is encouraged by survey reports and pronouncements that suggest that the party and its presidential candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, have a greater chance of winning the December 7 polls.

The party however, indicates that such reports and pronouncements would not make it complacent but would rather work hard to sell its ideas to the electorate in order to effect the change Ghanaians are yearning for.

Lately, Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Centre for Democratic Development-Ghana (CDD-Ghana) opinion polls point to tough times for Ghanaians, with strong indications for the present administration to be upstaged in the coming elections.

A news release issued in Accra yesterday and signed by Nana Akomea, Communications Director of the NPP, said the surveys and pronouncements of those reputable civil society organizations showed clearly that the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration was only interested in propaganda instead of finding solutions to the country’s teething problems.

A CDD recent survey has revealed that majority of Ghanaians believe that the country is heading in a wrong direction and the NPP is of the view that the damning report “captures the pain of Ghanaians and the great desire to change in election 2016.”

However, the ruling NDC officials have been rubbishing such reports, tagging them as politically motivated and have insisted that President John Mahama and the party are on course to secure a re-election.

 The CDD survey, which considered the opinions of 2,400 people of voting age between July 2 and 18, captured the mood of the respondents who were disillusioned about the state of hopelessness in the country, with a good majority of them pointing to unemployment, power crisis and education as key priorities that should drive the policy direction of candidates as this year's elections draw closer.

“The mood of the electorate going into the 2016 polls is broadly negative. Seven in ten Ghanaians believe the country is going in the wrong direction; and nearly half blame this ‘completely’ or ‘mostly’ on the government. Only a quarter think the country is headed in the right direction,” Senior Research Fellow at the CDD, Daniel Armah Attoh, told journalists in Accra at the presentation of the survey report headed, ‘Popular opinions on issues at stake in the 2016 election.’

The NPP statement asserted, “The findings from the survey highlights the clear sentiments of the vast  majority of Ghanaians on President Mahama’s leadership of this country,” adding, “The CDD report shows that President Mahama  has miserably failed in addressing the issues that are of the most concern to the  Ghanaian masses, including employment ,  provision of electricity,  economic management and  corruption.

“According to the CDD report, 70% of Ghanaians say President Mahama has not only failed in managing the economy, but that the country was headed in the wrong direction. 70% of Ghanaians reported that corruption has led to a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. 70% of Ghanaians indicated that President Mahama has failed in job creation.”

The NPP statement quoted CDD-Ghana as claiming, “70% of Ghanaians believed President Mahama had failed in bringing down the cost of living, and that the prices of basic goods and services are out of reach for the average  Ghanaian. In sum, 7 out of 10 Ghanaians have clearly rejected President Mahama’s leadership of this country and cannot tolerate another four years of his leadership.”

According to the NPP, the findings of the CDD survey “reinforces an earlier survey done in May 2016 by the IEA, which also reported that the main concern of majority of Ghanaians was poverty,” adding, “It also reinforces the two EIU surveys conducted this year  which also reported that  majority of Ghanaians are disappointed in the economic management of President Mahama and hence, will vote for the opposition NPP and Nana Akufo-Addo.”

The statement said the surveys also underscored the TUC's stance that the Ghanaian worker continues to get poorer and the workers had said they could not cope with the bad situation any longer.