Policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, says it conducted a survey which predicted the National Democratic Congress’ defeat in the general elections ahead of the polls.
The NDC’s defeat in the recently held general elections saw incumbent President, John Mahama’s ambition to serve a second term quashed.
The Presidential candidate of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Akufo-Addo, defeated President Mahama with a 53.85 percent, against the latter’s 44.40 percent, one of the worst defeats recorded by a sitting President.
The NDC’s defeat has sent shock waves through the rank and file of the party, with many blaming the leadership of the party for the loss.
Speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue, the Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Frnaklin Cudjoe, said IMANI Ghana’s survey indicated that the party will lose the elections.
He however said results of the polls were not published because it was ready only few days to the polls.
“This election was one that the signs actually had been there from day one. There was a programme IMANI conducted, the pre-election survey and seven out of ten regions suggested that 60 percent of respondents thought that the economy had taken a tail spin and so they were not satisfied. The signs were out there. Infact, we did a poll, but we never published. It was just almost a week to the elections,” he said
Findings of survey
More than 50% of respondents sampled in the pre-election survey conducted across the country, wanted government to retrieve monies lost through mismanagement and perceived dubious deals.
The Head of Economics at IMANI Ghana, Patrick Stephenson, had earlier made the revelation while presenting findings of the survey at the Mensvic Hotel in Accra.
“It is interesting to see that more than 50% of respondents we spoke to expected the government or whichever government to retrieve resources that had been lost; and so if you have to juxtapose this response or these results to the fact that if we have had cases where we are not too sure whether resources have been retrieved by the state for the people of Ghana , it becomes very worrying. You wonder if politicians are doing the things that citizens are looking for,” Mr. Stephenson said.
According to him, respondents in the Ashanti Region, topped the list of respondents making the request, with over 68% followed by the Upper East region with 64%, then the Western Region which recorded about 60%.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana