Head of European Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, says the outcome of Tuesday’s by-election in the Assin North constituency of the Central Region did not come to him as a surprise.
He said he had expected the National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate to win, even without a focused study, saying that among other things, the prevailing economic situation is a big determinant in an election and in a swing constituency, it is not about inducements.
The NDC candidate, James Gyakye Quayson emerged winner with 57.56% of votes, with the NPP’s Charles Opoku coming second with 42.15% and the Liberal Party of Ghana’s Enyonam Bernice Sefenu making only 0.29%.
Reviewing the poll a day after the Electoral Commission declared Mr Quayson winner, Dr Asah-Asante said intimidation, lies, harassment, deception and bribery do not win anybody any election.
It is rather the power of the people that wins elections, he explained, and said when the people make up their minds, nothing else matters as the “people will vote the way they want to vote.”
Dr Asah-Asante, a political scientist, said the message of Mr Quayson being a likely jail candidate as propagated by the New Patriotic Party was meant to intimidate voters, however, they were not worried and did as they pleased when they got to the voting booths.
“There, they cannot feel the threat of intimidation and they are there alone, and they have the right to exercise their mind,” he said Wednesday morning on JoyNews.
Dr Asah-Asante said Mr Quayson emerged unfazed by all manner of negative stories against him, including claims that he ran away out of Ghana to Canada.
He said while the NDC and NPP accused each other of bribery of voters, he thought the NDC did better in their campaigning.
He said in any election, three things – resource, strategy and message (RSM) are critical to electoral fortunes and that it was obvious the NDC had resources, had a good strategy by sending an advanced party into the constituency before moving its whole campaign machinery, including bringing down former President John Mahama and other party gurus to effectively campaign.
When it comes to message, he said apart from the NDC homing in on the economy, which he described as a most important consideration for voters, the promise of infrastructure development was another message that sat well with the people.
He said while the NPP did similar things, including actually initiating infrastructure development such as fixing the roads overnight, that midnight development came too late and constituted a deception and so failed to jell with the people. It also played into the hands of the NDC as a propagandist ploy to win votes.
He said the dynamics for the recent Kumawu bye-election where the NPP won were different.
Kumawu is an NPP stronghold where message did not matter. In a stronghold, he said, people vote on party ideology, party affiliation and party attachment.