The Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, has predicted a landslide victory for the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, as Ghanaians gear up for elections in 2020.
The EIU in its country report on Ghana released on May 13, 2019, disclosed that it will be difficult for the opposition NDC under former President John Dramani Mahama, to present itself as the better custodian of Ghana’s economy, especially as the country’s growth outlook looks considerably strong.
The EIU has over the years released similar reports and predictions on Ghana’s elections, which in a number of cases have turned out to be right.
Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2016 elections, beat then President John Mahama by polling 5,716,026 million votes, representing 53.85%, while John Mahama polled 4,713,277 million votes representing 44.40%, the worse so far for an incumbent President.
Specifically, on elections, the EIU says “Nana Akufo-Addo, the president, and his NPP will see the country’s economic situation generally improve during the remainder of their terms of office. In the presidential election, it says Akufo-Addo will face a challenge from John Mahama— Ghana’s president from 2012 to early 2017, who was elected leader of the opposition NDC in February 2019.”
It says “the 2016 legislative election was won by the NPP; and the campaign was dominated by the faltering economy, which many Ghanaians still associate with Mr Mahama.”
Accordingly, “The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that it will be difficult for the NDC under Mr Mahama to portray itself as the better custodian of Ghana’s economy, especially as the country’s growth outlook is fairly strong.”
They, therefore, said they “expect Mr. Akufo-Addo and the NPP to secure re-election in 2020.”
They, however, noted that, “if the NDC can present a coherent opposition and hold the NPP to account on unfulfilled campaign promises particularly on job creation and industrialisation, where progress has been generally slow and success patchy—the election could be closely contested.”
The EIU report, which is an outlook of Ghana for 2019 to 2023, did not only present findings on its election watch, but also analysed Ghana’s political stability, international relations, policy trends, fiscal policy, monetary policy, inflation, exchange rates and general economic growth.
Credit: Citinewsroom