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Bono Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye DC has indicated that his party is not sitting aloof to allow complacency to set in over the report of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that the governing NPP will secure re-election in 2020.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, EIU, has predicted that the governing New Patriotic Party, NPP, will secure re-election in 2020.

The report on Ghana released on May 13, 2019, said it will be difficult for the opposition NDC under former President John Dramani Mahama, to portray itself as the better custodian of Ghana’s economy, especially as the country’s growth outlook looks fairly strong.

The EIU has over the years released similar reports and predictions on Ghana’s elections, which in a number of cases have turned out to be right.

Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2016 elections, beat then President John Mahama by polling 5,716,026 million votes, representing 53.85%, while John Mahama polled 4,713,277 million votes representing 44.40%, the worse so far for an incumbent President.

Election Watch

Specifically, on elections, the EIU says “Nana Akufo-Addo, the President, and his NPP will see the country’s economic situation generally improve during the remainder of their terms of office."  "In the presidential election, it says Akufo-Addo will face a challenge from John Mahama— Ghana’s president from 2012 to early 2017, who was elected leader of the opposition NDC in February 2019.”

It says "the 2016 legislative election was won by the NPP; and the campaign was dominated by the faltering economy, which many Ghanaians still associate with Mr Mahama.” Accordingly, “The Economist Intelligence Unit believes that it will be difficult for the NDC under Mr Mahama to portray itself as the better custodian of Ghana’s economy, especially as the country’s growth outlook is fairly strong.”

They, therefore, said they “expect Mr. Akufo-Addo and the NPP to secure re-election in 2020.”

They, however, noted that, “if the NDC can present a coherent opposition and hold the NPP to account on unfulfilled campaign promises particularly on job creation and industrialisation, where progress has been generally slow and success patchy—the election could be closely contested.”

Commenting on the EIU report on UTV’s 'Adekye Nsroma' programme on Saturday, May 18, 2019, the newly elected Bono Regional Chairman of the NPP said “Nana Addo winning the 2020 general elections is obvious but we will work hard to improve our gains”.

He disclosed that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) leadership has already started training their people from the Constituency level to the polling stations level in order to maximize their gains in the 2020 general elections.

He however reiterated that “we will not sit down and allow complacency to set in due to the report of EIU”.