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A United Kingdom-based Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has predicted the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) is likely to win both the presidential and parliamentary elections at the 2024 polls.
A report released on Friday, April 28, said the NDC stood a strong chance of winning the 2024 presidential poll and securing a legislative majority.
“Our baseline forecast is that economic hardships, the fallout from debt restructuring and poor governance will create an anti-incumbency wave and push the electorate to seek change.
The NDC, therefore, stands a strong chance of winning the 2024 presidential poll and securing a legislative majority,” it said.
Report
According to the report, irrespective of who got power, it expected Ghana’s policy to continue to focus on ensuring macroeconomic stability.
The report indicated that the new government would face similar economic challenges just as its predecessor encountered.
The UK-based organisation also focused on the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and NDC internal elections where it expected the contests to secure the presidential candidacies of both parties to be highly competitive.
On the NDC presidential election scheduled for May 13, 2023, the report said the party could “choose to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate” such as the former Finance Minister, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, who was one of the three candidates vying to lead the party.
The two others are former President, John Dramani Mahama, and a former Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Kojo Bonsu.
Reaction
Since the report was made public, some leading members of both the NDC and the NPP have reacted to it.
On the NDC side, two leading members, the National Communication Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South and ranking member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak, said in separate interviews that the party would not be complacent.
According to them, the party would “not go to sleep” but would continue to focus on its programmes and projects to win the elections.
Sammy Gyamfi indicated that the party was working strictly according to electoral plans with a keen interest in the polling stations.
For his part, Dr Apaak urged the NDC members to demonstrate to Ghanaians that they were a better alternative and not to place too much premium on the report.
“We have to demonstrate to the good people of Ghana why we are a better alternative.
We have to demonstrate to them what we can do differently, by pointing out the colossal failure of the current NPP government.
NPP
Reacting to it, the Director of Communications, for the NPP, Richard Ahiagbah, urged Ghanaians to take lightly the report.
He explained that the components and content of the research should be consumed in a context to allow Ghanaians to appreciate the economic issues faced by the country.
A former NPP MP for the Okaikwei North Constituency, Fuseini Issah, however, said, the NPP would take a cue from the report to hold onto power.
According to him, incumbent governments around the world were not too popular given where the global economy was.
“No incumbent government now expects to be popular to easily win an election.
Things will have to happen for an incumbent government to be able to retain power,” he said.
Source: graphic.com.gh
