A pre-election survey conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has revealed that Ghanaians assessments of the performance of the Akufo-Addo led-government are broadly positive.

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) gained high scores for their handling of the Covid-19 crisis, electricity, and education.

However, the public was quite upset with the administration’s handling of inflation, bridging inequality and curbing corruption.  

Interesting, unlike 2016 that a whopping (70%) number of the public held the view that the country was going in the wrong direction, this time round the number have split, with 47% at both side claiming the country is either going the right or wrong direction.

Irrespective of this split, the NPP enjoys a significant advantage (15 percentage points) over its major opponent the National Democratic Congress (NDC), when it comes to public confidence in the ability to deliver on campaign promises

Similarly, despite the brouhaha over the competence of Jean Mensah led-Electoral Commission, the public are still confident in the Commission to deliver free and fair elections.

Although serious concerns remain about the integrity of the vote count and result transmission process, as a large minority –more than 4 in 10–express concerns about the wrong vote tally being announced, and about a third are not confident that their vote would be counted (concerns that are far higher than 2016).    

According to the survey findings released on Friday, Ghanaian commitment to the ballot box remains strong, anchored in the belief that elections do matter, and their votes would make a difference.

They express equally strong commitment to the rule of law, and peaceful means, mainly the use of the courts (instead of violence) to resolve election disputes.

They put a very high premium on peaceful elections, strongly abhor election violence, and would like to see perpetrators of election violence given jail sentences.