For the third time in a row, Education, Health and Employment have topped the list of most critical issues of concern to Ghanaians ahead of the general election with security issues ranked 7.
This is contained in this year’s edition of a report dubbed “Matters of Concern to the Ghanaian Voter” launched by the NCCE in Accra.
Findings from the report indicate that Ghanaians want the next government to abolish the double track system due to poor implementation. This is despite the general acceptance of the Free SHS policy by Ghanaians and their willingness to see the programme sustained.
The 16th edition of the NCCE’s annual flagship activity which takes the form of a research was conducted with a sample size of 9,500 and had a response rate of 98 percent. The main objective of the report was to examine issues of importance to citizens as well as access how past governments have performed in terms of addressing key issues that have emerged from the commission’s previous surveys.
Majority of respondents are voters who have exercised their franchise at least 7 times. The report indicates that 70 percent of Ghanaian voters are projected to vote for the party they voted for in 2016 while 19.6 percent say they are unable to vote for various reasons such as their inability to acquire the voters ID card.
Director of Research, Gender and Equality at the NCCE, Dr Henrietta Asante Sarpong, gave a breakdown of the most critical issues that came up in the survey.
“The issue of Education came top followed by Employment, Health, Roads Social Services, Agriculture. We tried to compare the issues for 2016 and 2012 with that of 2020 and the top three issues are almost always the same. But for 2020, there was a shift in position as Education was still top Employment second and Health third. Education was ranked first in 15 out of 16 regions.”
Dr. Sarpong highlighted some recommendations put forward by respondents during the survey.
“The citizens require the next government to continue with the free SHS policy, they (the citizens) are calling for the double-track system to be abolished. The next government should make education affordable. On Employment, the citizens want the next government to roll out more Employment-related policies. On Health, the respondents want the next government to provide adequate health infrastructure including the NHIS scheme.”
The report was made possible with assistance from the European Union and the One Ghana Movement.
Story filed by Nathaniel Nartey.
