The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has rubbished the survey conducted by the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana predicting a win for Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2020 election.
At a press conference addressed by the National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi, the opposition party questioned the credibility of the lecturers involved in the survey.
“Some few people were influenced by NPP politicians. They sat in the confines of their offices and generated a report which is what has been released. That is the information we have,” Mr. Gyamfi claimed.
Aside from the allegations, the NDC also said results of the poll cannot portend the results of the upcoming election.
“Assuming without admitting that this poll was authentic and well done, it’s just a poll. Even if what they have done is a good research job, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will come to pass because polls are not sacrosanct.”
The survey predicted a 51.7 percent win for the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP), whilst the NDC followed with 40.4 percent of the total vote cast.
This would represent a drop in both party’s figures from 2016.
The NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo secured 53.6 percent of the vote in 2016 whilst John Mahama of the NDC, then the incumbent had 44.7 percent of the valid votes cast.
The candidate of the Ghana Union Movement (GUM), Christian Kwabena Andrews, placed third in the survey with 1.4 percent.
If this figure turned out to be accurate, this would be the highest percentage of a candidate outside the NDC and NPP since 2004 when Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention secured 1.9 percent of the valid votes cast.
According to the UG Political Science Department, the survey sampled 11,000 respondents nationwide for the survey.
The researchers say 80 percent of the respondents said they will vote based on the campaign message.
Out of the number, 52.5 percent said they will vote for Nana Akufo-Addo, while 40. 9% said they will vote for John Mahama.
About 3.7 percent of Ghanaians are still undecided, according to the survey.
