How do you campaign, make promises without manifestos? – Political Analyst quizzes politicians

Economist and Political Analyst, Dr. Worlanyo Mensah, has opined that Ghanaian politicians take the electorates for granted, often making promises they do not intend to keep, only doing so because they feel the electorates will be pleased to hear these promises.

He made this assertion in relation to the recent campaign trails by the two presidential candidates of the major political parties across the country.

In an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, he pinpointed the National Democratic Congress and its flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, as embarking on campaigns without a blueprint; hence underrating the intelligence of electorates.

“We need to go beyond utterances people make that ‘I will do this or that’. The bottom line is what is the evidence? We are living in a knowledge-based economy. At the end of the day, we are looking at the blueprint. So parties are mandated to have blueprints which are their manifestos; the actual document that will be used to assess whatever you are saying. This is because people can get up and say whatever they like just to appease a crowd of supporters. We have less than four months to elections and the biggest political party in terms of opposition doesn’t have a blueprint for Ghanaians but they have started campaigning so what are you using for your campaign?”

Dr. Mensah expressed disappointment in political parties for the delay in presenting their manifestos to the electorates even after four months to elections. He added that the delaying of manifestos is a deliberate strategy by political parties to score political points with empty promises by word of mouth.

“The politicians are not taking the electorates serious. There are many at times that political leaders and their parties make a lot more comments that they will do this and that. Four years will pass, eight years will pass and a lot has not been done because there is no evidence.

The strategy that various political parties use in Ghana is that Ghanaians just want to hear something. And so they get up and scheme things that they know Ghanaians will be interested to hear”.

Proposing the way forward, he stated that political parties consult the National Development Planning Committee that “has a lot more policies and programmes based on research as to how this country should be governed and developed”. “At the end of the day, yours is to liaise with them and get these policies and programmes and see how best you will be able to implement it for accelerated development”, he added.

Ahead of the 2020 December polls, the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has begun a four-day tour of the Volta Region. He will subsequently proceed to the Oti Region for a three-day tour of that region.

Similarly, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will embark on a five-day working tour of the Central and Western Regions from Tuesday, August 18, 2020, to commission a number of projects, break the ground for the commencement of other projects, and call on traditional rulers during the tour.