Akufo Addo’s Electoral Fortunes Weakening in Eastern, Bono, Central Accra

A local election pollster Vote233 is warning the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) that its Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo Addo’s popularity is slowly waning in three important regions: Easter, Bono, Central and Greater Accra Regions.

In the latest survey conducted in August 2020 and posted on the group’s website, President Akufo Addo’s fortunes in the newly created Bono Region dropped from 63.8% to 55%; in the Eastern Region from 91% to 82%; in the Central Region from 48.6% to 47% and in the Greater Accra Region, the NPP’s election potentials have declined from 47.5% chance to 41%.

However, overall, Vote233 is tipping the NPP presidential candidate to win the December 2020 presidential election by a wide margin of some 46.6% against 24.8% of his closest rival from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), ex-President John Dramani Mahama.

However, this poll is still inconclusive in safely determining the outcome of the presidential race because there is a huge number of undecided voters: 20%.

It is unclear where the preferences of these undecided voters will swing to. A mass movement to any of the two frontline presidential candidates could easily change the outcome of the elections in December.

“Overall, Nana Addo’s chances improved in 7 regions, dropped in 4 and remained relatively unchanged in 5. This is why our forecast gives him a slight edge in the December polls. As of writing, our model gives him a 6 in 10 chance of winning the elections — not a bad place to be 3 months out from the election,” Vote233 stated.

According to the pollsters, President Akufo Addo should better pray that President Mahama does not up his game and make the race any more competitive than it was as at August 2020 “The challenge for Nana Addo is to fight off any attempts by John Mahama to make the any more competitive. The closer his chances get to 50%, the more unpredictable the race becomes,” Vote233 noted.

However, President Akufo Addo’s worst fears may have just happened some three weeks ago when it launched its 2020 manifesto with the NDC launching theirs some two weeks ago.

The NDC Manifesto appears to have ignited the competition with John Mahama pledging to legalise commercial motorcycle business that hundreds of thousands depend on and additional promises that seek to eclipse the NPP’s flagship policies, such as the planned extension of Free Senior High School education to include private schools; paying part of the tuition of university students; making technical education free of charge and broadening the base of legal education in Ghana.

Indeed, these promises have struck fear in the NPP such that the governing party which initially insisted that it will continue to proscribe commercial motorcycles as an illegal business. However, the groundswell and positive response to the promise has forced the NPP to do a ridiculous U-turn that has got Ghanaians noticing that the ruling party is terrified by the trump card pulled by the NDC.

Additionally, the NPP Vice Presidential Candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has further muddied the waters for the governing party, when he presented the party’s “Infrastructure Tracker”. Out of the 17,000 projects he claimed the Akufo Addo government had implemented, it has been discovered that a significant bulk are either non-existent or were projects initiated by the erstwhile NDC administration headed by John Dramani Mahama.