Election 2020- To vote or not to vote

Since the inception of democracy in the country, Ghana has not seized heralding this system of government and upholding the credit of being the ‘Beacon of Democracy’ in the continent of Africa.

Elections are believed to emphasize two elements of democracy –participation and competition. Even though elections, is not an end in its self, it continually remains a means to an end because it provides the major blueprint for democracies to thrive.

Tune into our political shows and other social media handles and you will be amazed at the gist, verbal assaults, exposition of aspirants secrets, comparison of manifestoes and aspirants; yet on the day of election the exercise is peaceful with no threats of war or any physical abuse except miscreants who do not adhere to electoral rules.

Ghana has barely 6 months to go to the polls again. It’s amazing to hear the gist, speculations and predictions.

Elections in Ghana are usually tensed due to unexpected outcomes such as incumbent losing or retaining a seat, an opponent winning a seat and promising candidates  being disappointed  at the results.

Since the opposition party took office, they have not been able to fully fulfil their manifestoes they made noise about. Some people are of the opinion that those manifestoes were just to deceive the citizens to give them the baton to lead the nation. A lot of citizens are disappointed at the slow rate of development of the country with the speculations of not voting in the next elections.

Afrobarometer which heads a pan-African, nonpartisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues across Africa held a survey in 2019 asking respondents: if Presidential elections were held tomorrow, which party’s candidate would they vote for?

Key findings when asked which party’s candidate they would vote for if presidential elections were held the following day, more than four in 10 Ghanaians (42%) said they would not vote (11%), did not know (12%), or refused to answer the question (19%)

YEN Ghana also released another result from a survey they conducted. Majority of Ghanaians who responded said they will not vote President Nana Akufo-Addo in the upcoming polls on December 7, 2020.

By the time this story was published 77% of Ghanaians or respondents said they will not vote for Akufo-Addo judging from his performance in his first term.

“Judging by the recent happenings and developmental programmes he has rolled out so far, will you give him a second term as President and why?”

The respondents gave different reasons why they will not keep President Akufo-Addo in office for another four years.

Are respondents denying their obvious choice to disappoint the current opposition?

Samuel  Elijah Boateng