Accra, Ghana//-At the time that Ghana and the rest of the world are battling the ravaging health and economic impacts of COVID-19 pandemic, majority of Ghanaians say that unemployment is still their top priority which they want their government to address immediately.
This is revealed by the 2020 post-election survey findings released by Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), an independent, non-government and non-profit research and advocacy institute that promotes democracy, good governance and economic openness in Ghana and Africa.
According to survey, 57% of Ghanaians want the Akufo-Addo administration to address the problem of unemployment in the country at the time that the country as of yesterday lost 1,017 lives to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While 36% are asking the government to address the deplorable infrastructure and roads impeding the movement of goods and services in the West African country.
Another 36% of Ghanaians also want the government to fix the challenges facing the country’s education sector.
Speaking at the launch of the survey findings in Accra, Dr Edem Selormey, Director of Research at CDD-Ghana said: “Ghanaians’ policy priorities needing government’s attention unemployment, infrastructure and roads, education, management of the economy and health are the five top policy priorities Ghanaians would want to see government addressing”.
Additionally, the citizens of Ghana asked the government to double its efforts at investments in education, infrastructure, healthcare and agriculture to speed up the growth of the country.
These four priority areas are being recommended by Ghanaians for additional investment, in case government wants to increase public spending, according to her.
Confidence in government’s ability to consolidate and expand other policy initiatives
“Ghanaians are nearly equally split in their confidence in government’s ability to consolidate the gains made in the planting/rearing for food and job programs in the next four years, but the majority express lack of confidence in the government’s ability to expand the one million dollar per constituency initiative”.
On perceptions about the reduction in President Nana Akufo-Addo’s vote margin, the survey found out that a cumulative 58% attribute the reduction in Mr Akufo-Addo’s vote margin to his policy decision and actions, his MPs and appointee’s performance and the president’s performance.
Meaning of the reduction in NPP’s parliamentary seats
The survey’s respondents attribute the loss of seats by the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a result of the NPPs MPs non-performance, the NPP’s bad campaign and the non-performance of their candidates.
Citizens perceptions of the increase in NDC’s parliamentary seats
Among other factors the respondents attribute the gains the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) made in the parliamentary elections as to the NPPs MPs non-performance, the NDC’s campaign and the performance of their candidates, and a way of punishing the NPP for non performance.
Before the elections last year, the NDC had 106 seats in Parliament compared with the NPP’s169 seats. But after the elections, both parties have 137-137 seats each with an independent MP who had agreed to join the NPP members, hence securing the NPP parliamentary majority.
Survey methodology
The survey which was conducted from 23rd May to 3rd June, 2021after the inauguration of the Akufo-Addo administration for second term has a sample size of 2,400 yields a margin of error of ±2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
All respondents are randomly selected across the 16 regions of the country. The sample is distributed across regions and urban/rural areas in proportion to their share in the national adult population.
Every adult citizen has an equal chance of being selected.
African Eye Report
