Do Political Parties Manifestos Win Elections In Ghana?
The word manifesto comes from the Latin word manifestum meaning clear or conspicuous.
The Oxford dictionary defines manifesto as a public declaration of policy and aims, especially one issued before an election by a political party or candidate. A manifesto according to dictionary.com is defined as a public declaration of intentions, opinions, objectives, or motives, as one issued by a government, sovereign, or organization.
According to Wikipedia, a manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government.
We are currently at the apex of the political season in Ghana as in about three months the people of Ghana will go to the polls again to elect a new President who will govern this country for the next four (4) years. What makes this election unique is the fact the former President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama (JDM), the Presidential candidate elect for the largest opposition party in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress(NDC) is contesting with the sitting President; the candidate elected by the ruling party the New Patriotic(NPP) Party, His Excellency Nana Addo -Danquah Akuffo Addo. The stakes are therefore high as JDM wants a comeback and Nana Addo wants four more years to do more.
As a ritual, all political parties have to launch their manifestos to convince Ghanaian electorates to give them their mandate. The NPP, the ruling government on Saturday, 22nd August 2020 converged at the examination hall of the University of Cape Coast in the Central Region of Ghana to lunch it’s 2020 Manifesto titled “LEADERSHIP OF SERVICE: PROTECTING OUR PROGRESS, TRANSFORMING GHANA FOR ALL. Many juicy promises were made to convince Ghanaians why they should retain them in power for the next 4 years. We are all waiting patiently for the NDC party manifesto lunch.
As an academic and a chartered marketer, I would like to equate the political party’s manifestos to a product and bring to bear why political manifestos are important and why some manifestos fail to win power in Ghana.
Importance of manifestoes for political parties in general
The importance of manifestos to political parties includes but not limited to the following:
1. Promotion of new ideas with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes
2. Presentation of the stance of political parties
3. Helping a section of voters who can read and understand to make an informed choice on which
political party to vote for.
4. Playing an important role in directing the policies of the government whose political party wins
the elections.
5. Playing an important role in the general transformation of a country when a political party wins
an election.
Explanation to the above stated points
1. Promotion of new ideas with prescriptive notions for carrying out changes what are the new ideas one may ask?
From the electorate’s perspective, a new idea is any addition or change in the assortment of available choices. The term “new idea” is somewhat confusing because it can mean so many things. There are several correct definitions of this term. An idea can be new to the world, the electorate and the political party.
At first, glance, defining a “new idea” would seem easy. Yet, the term “new” can be defined from different angles. Is it a new idea to the electorate? Even if it has been available elsewhere and used by others for a long time, the newness of an idea affects electorates decisions as to who to vote for and the political party’s marketing strategies. What directly affects the electorate’s decision to vote in favour of party A or B is how new and convincing the idea is. Also, even from an organizational and marketing perspective, there are degrees of the newness of ideas. Having explained what a “new idea” is, political parties through their manifestoes try to bring new ideas and promises to convince electorates to vote for them.
The NPP in their just ended manifesto lunch made new promises (new ideas) from the old free Senior High School (SHS) policy, the one district one factory (1D1F) policy, access to student loans by tertiary students with just their identity cards, the building of sixteen (16) new SHS in the 16 Zongo communities in Ghana and the new rent policy.
2. Presentation of the stance of political parties
Manifestos present an opportunity for political parties going into elections to present their stance to the electorates. The NPP touts itself as Capitalist while the NDC touts itself as Social Democrats. Each of these political parties through their manifestos enforces their party’s stance through policies and programs they intend to roll out given the chance.
3. Helping a section of voters who can read and understand to make an informed choice on which political party to vote for
Do all Ghanaians read and understand political parties manifestos? Do manifestos win elections? These are some questions people ask frequently when the topic of manifestos is discussed. The answer to these questions is a big Yes. Why? Admittedly, not all Ghanaians can read and understand but with the proliferation of media houses all over Ghana, especially when they explain manifestos in different dialects, Ghanaians become aware and understand the promises in the manifestos of the major political parties. This helps them to make informed decisions based on what they hear.
Furthermore, there is a section of Ghanaians called “floating voters” who do not have a specific political party they belong. Surprisingly, such people form the majority and are mostly educated. They can therefore easily read and understand manifestos. Thus, they usually vote based on policies and programs in the manifestos of political parties. Ultimately, they always decide who wins the general elections. Hence, the manifestos of political parties win elections.
4. Playing an important role in directing the policies of the government whose political party wins the elections
Manifestos are like a compass and they direct a political party’s policies when it wins elections and forms a government. As soon as a political party wins an election, manifestoes are implemented as promised. Manifestos are social contracts between political parties and electorates. Every party who wins an election based on the promises made in their manifestos will see to it that they fulfil their manifesto promises so that their mandate can be renewed when their term of office ends and they seek re-election. A political party who wins elections and forms a government can only be retained under this democratic dispensation if only they fulfil most if not all their promises in their manifesto. If these promises are not fulfilled, the electorates generally will not renew their mandate.
5. Playing an important role in the transformation of a country when a political party wins an election
Manifestos play a major role in the transformation of a country. A country is transformed through policies and programs and these are mostly found in political party’s manifestos whether political parties are seeking re-election or want to unseat an incumbent. Without manifestos, countries who do not have developmental policies unlike the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA) will be seriously affected.
Having exhaustively discussed the importance of manifestos to political parties let me look at why some manifestos of political parties fail in Ghana. As indicated earlier, I would like to equate manifestos to a product and discuss some reasons why some manifestos (products) fail to win power.
Some reasons why Political Manifestos in Ghana (Products) fail
It is estimated that there is a one-in-three failure rate among new manifesto (product) introductions. Common reasons for manifesto failure in Ghana includes but not limited to the following:
1. Inadequate manifesto superiority or uniqueness: if a manifesto (product) is merely an imitation of an already existing manifesto, it does not offer the electorates a relative advantage, and then the manifesto (product) may be doomed from the start. For example, if the manifesto of political party A is known to be pre-existing and it is copied and pasted by another political party, it will be doomed from the start.
2. Inadequate planning: Many manifestos fail because of political party’s inability to conduct proper marketing research about the electorates’ (consumers) needs, wants and expectations among other things. Also, the failure of political parties to develop realistic forecasts of market demand and accurate estimates of the acceptance of a new manifesto.
3. Poor marketing strategies: No matter how good a manifesto is, adequate resources must be allocated so that winning strategies can be properly executed. Many manifestos fail because some political parties think their manifestos are so good and that they will sell themselves. They, therefore, do not provide adequate resources for the marketing of the policies and programs contained in the manifesto for the ordinary electorate to understand. Poor marketing of a good manifesto cannot win an election.
4. Technical problems: Problems may stem from technical failures during production or design of the manifesto. An example can be missing pages, grammatical errors, and poor printing. These factors can affect the readership of a manifesto.
6. Poor timing: The timing of the lunch of a political party’s manifesto is critical. What has become the practice in Ghana is that the ruling party usually lunches its manifesto first before the opposition parties lunch theirs. The reason is that the ruling party will steal the ideas of the opposition party. I, however, hold a contrary view to this practice. I am eagerly waiting for the day an opposition party in Ghana will be bold enough to lunch its manifesto earlier than the ruling party will. I am not in any way suggesting that they should rush, but do a good job by launching their manifestos early enough so that they will get ample time to market it well to the electorates before the ruling party launches its manifesto.
Lunching a political party’s manifesto too earlier or too late is not good. Thus, political parties must find a fine balance in terms of the timing of the manifesto launch. We are in August, it is barely three (3) months to the general elections, and political parties are now launching their manifestos. Even though the Coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19) has undoubtedly disrupted the plans of political parties, it should still not be an excuse for the late launch of the manifestos/ campaigns of political parties as it could have been launch virtually.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the article has looked at what political manifestos entail, their importance and why some fail. It was looked from a marketing perspective and it has concluded that political manifestos win elections and that generally the electorate read and understand manifestos either by themselves or as explained in various dialects on the various media houses. Again, this article concludes that not all manifestos win elections.
Based on the conclusions, the author recommends the following:
General recommendations
• All political parties must allocate adequate resources for research to know the problems of
Ghanaians and effectively seek to address them.
• Political parties should not be complacent in thinking that their manifestos are so good that they
will sell themselves.Seriouse education must carried to explain the policies and programs to the
ordinary Ghanaian.
Specific recommendations
1. To an incumbent seeking re-election
• Adequate resources must be allocated for the marketing of the policies and programs promised in their manifesto for the ordinary electorate to understand. All available media; both online and offline must be fully utilized. Poor marketing of a good manifesto cannot win an election.
• Experienced people within the party who are tried and tested should train the communicators of the party as to how to explain the policies and programs promised in the manifesto in the local dialects to the ordinary voter to understand.
• Where possible, experts outside the party in areas that the party lacks must be consulted.
2. Opposition party seeking to unseat the incumbent
• Lunch your manifesto earlier than the incumbent so that you can get enough time to market your policies and programs to the electorates.
• Pay more attention and allocate a good budget to the marketing of the policies and programs in their manifesto through the various media platforms for the ordinary electorate to understand.
• Where possible consult experts outside the party for advice in certain critical areas.
<<Print>>