About 49.5 per cent of Ghanaians will vote out their Members of Parliament (MPs) over poor performance if elections were held today, a new survey report has revealed.
The survey, conducted by the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana, had 42.6 per cent of the respondents ready to retain their lawmakers with 7.9 per cent of respondents still undecided.
Also, a majority of the respondents representing 46.7 per cent do not want their incumbent MPs to contest in the 2020 general election while 42.4 per cent want their MPs to contest with 10.9 per cent still undecided on whether their MPs should contest or not.
Regional level
In two regions, 50 per cent or more would vote for the incumbents: Volta (56.4 per cent) & Oti (50.0 per cent), the report said.
“In nine others, 40 per cent or more would vote for the incumbents: Savannah (48.7 per cent), Ashanti (45.7 per cent), Bono East (45.7 per cent), Ahafo (45.5 per cent), Northern (45.3 per cent), Western North (45.2 per cent), Upper West (42.7 per cent), Eastern (41.7 per cent) and Central (40.7 per cent).”
“In the other five, only 30 per cent or more would vote for the incumbents: Western (38.5 per cent) , Bono (35.7 per cent) , Upper East (35.3 per cent), Greater Accra (34.5 per cent) and North East (32.9 per cent).”
“In four regions, more than 10 per cent were undecided: Western North (16.0 per cent), North East (14.1 per cent) Upper East (10.2 per cent) and Savannah (10.0 per cent),” it added.
NPP MPs
The region with the most support for NPP incumbents, if elections were held today, was Oti (66.0 per cent) where NPP has a single seat.
In the three regions where NPP has its highest number of seats, the support for the incumbents was lower: Ashanti-44 seats (45.8 per cent), Eastern-27 seats (42.3 per cent) and Greater Accra-21 seats (31.3 per cent).
In four regions, more than 10 per cent were undecided: Upper East (10.1 per cent), Greater Accra (10.5 per cent), Western North (16.3 per cent) and North East (17.6 per cent)
NDC MPs
The region with the most support for NDC incumbents, if elections were held today, was Ahafo (60.4 per cent) where NDC has two seats.
In the three regions where NDC has its highest number of seats, the support for the incumbents was lower: Volta-18 seats (56.4 per cent), Greater Accra-13 seats (39.5 per cent) and Upper East-12 seats (36.9 per cent). In five regions, more than 10 per cent were undecided: Upper East (10.1 per cent), North East (10.6 per cent), Eastern (13.1 per cent), Western North (15.9 per cent) and Central (16.2 per cent).
MPs risk losing seats worrying
Meanwhile, an Executive Director of the Parliamentary Network, Africa, Mr Sammy Obeng, has said that the recent research conducted by the Political Science Department at the University of Ghana should be a wake-up call for parliamentarians and Ghanaians.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Accra-based Citi FM, Mr Obeng said the report was a major cause of alarm, saying, “I think MPs should be extremely worried.
Ghanaians should also be extremely worried. To predict that about 180 MPs risk losing their seats in the upcoming election is a worrying trend.” “We should be worried.
MPs should start revising their notes on how to create chamber-constituency balance in the work that they do so that no aspect of it suffers going forward.
They (MPs) are penalised for not going to their constituencies but there are structures that have been put in place in Parliament that MPs need to take advantage of to make themselves visible to the constituents.
In this era of technology, they need to make their constituents realise what they are doing as MPs,” he added.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
