About half of electorate want their MPs changed – UG report
About 49.5 percent of eligible voters across the country, say they will not vote to retain their Members of Parliament in the 2020 elections.
That’s according to a joint research by the University of Ghana’s political science department and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. It has a total of 27,500 (Male – 14,712; Female – 12,788) respondents taking part in the survey.
Although the primary duty of MPs is to make laws, lead researcher, Dr. Isaac Owusu-Mensah revealed that most constituents are more interested in seeing their MPs undertake developmental projects.
One of the major concerns raised by the constituents was that many MPs don’t visit their constituencies.
A member of the research team, Kaakyire Frempong said although 49.5% of the electorate are likely to vote against sitting MPs in the 2020 polls, experienced lawmakers enjoy more support from constituents than first time MPs in the legislature.
According to the findings, Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh is the best performing minister in President Akufo-Addo’s administration
Meanwhile, some Members of Parliament who were present during the presentation indicated that the research is a great source of feedback for them.
The Ghanaian Parliament currently has 275 legislators from two main political parties: the governing New Patriotic Party and the biggest opposition party, National Democratic Congress.
Talking about job creation, the report noted that constituents were not satisfied with efforts by their MPs to secure them employment.
“Implementation of the One-Village-One-Dam and One-Village-One-Factory [sic] initiative could have been the starting point for solving the unemployment conundrum in the constituencies.
However, only 13.9% said their MPs are actively pursuing the industrialization agenda of the government.
“The majority of the voters, 57.5% faulted their MPs for not showing interest in the new initiatives that would drive the employment agenda. Not even NPP MPs in their strongholds in Ashanti 59.2% and Eastern 52.5% have lifted the initiatives on their development efforts.”
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