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Seven out of 10 Ghanaians have said government is steering the country in the wrong direction, according to a survey conducted by the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).

A pre-election survey conducted by the think tank identified that Ghanaians wanted political campaigns ahead of the December general elections to focus on how to resolve issues of unemployment.

A senior research fellow at the CDD-Ghana, Daniel Armah Attoh, addressing journalists in Accra, said: “Ghanaians place unemployment, electricity, and education on the top policy priority list they want the 2016 polls to address, and yet a clear majority assess government’s performance in addressing their policy priorities negatively.

“Indeed, a narrow majority seems to believe that another political party can do a better job. A solid majority of Ghanaians claim the following factors will have a great deal or some influence on the choices of candidates and parties in the 2016 polls – bad roads, government corruption, power outages, high prices of foodstuffs, access to medical care, use of abusive language, and posturing of politicians.

“However, Ghanaians say the following factors will have no influence on their vote choices, that is, whether a candidate offers them a gift or not, whether the candidate shares in their religious faith, or the candidate comes from their home region.

“The mood of the electorate going into the 2016 polls is broadly negative. Seven in 10 Ghanaians believe that the country is going in the wrong direction and nearly half blame this completely on mostly the government. Nonetheless, Ghanaians are split in their evaluations of the job performance of the president and Members of Parliament. Nearly half approve the overall job performance of the president and their respective MPs but the rest disapprove.”


Crime Prevention:

Regarding the issue of crime prevention, the study found that Ghanaians are happy with government’s fight against crime.

Government performance, Mr  Attoh said, “is somewhat positive with respect to crime and violence prevention where a minority four in 10 offers a negative assessment.”

Government handling priority national issues:

Ghanaians did not mince words when they suggested government’s handling of issues such as unemployment, electricity, and education is not encouraging.

They believe that another political party can do a better job.

On the Presidency:

In evaluating the performance of the President, there was a split with nearly half of the respondents approving the overall job performance of President Mahama while the other half think otherwise.

The survey was conducted from a sample size of 2,400 adult Ghanaians cutting across 163 districts and 291 towns and villages.