[ 2016-08-25 ]

Logos of some political parties in Ghana

Political parties' promises are empty, unattainable - IMANI
Policy think tank, IMANI Ghana, has said the
campaign promises by leading political parties in
the country are “almost empty” and “without
substance.”

According to IMANI, three out of every four
promises made so far by the political parties
ahead of the December polls cannot be measured.

This was contained in a special report of the
analyses of campaign promises made by the six main
political parties in the country, namely, the
National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New
Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People’s
Party (CPP), the People’s National Convention
(PNC), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and
the National Democratic Party (NDP).

Although the various political parties, except
for the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), are
yet to launch their manifestoes, IMANI’s
assessment is based on the promises made by some
of the parties at the recent Institute of Economic
Affairs’ evening encounters as well as those
reported by the media.

Presenting the findings of the analysis, a
researcher at IMANI, Stephan Reppen, noted that a
total of 247 promises had so far been made by the
various parties.

According to him, out of the total, 18 of them
were quantifiable, 43 were semi-quantifiable,
while 186 were non-quantifiable.

"It is clear that the vast majority of the
promises that the party presents are not
assessable. They are almost empty promises. A lot
of issues arise from this," Mr Reppen said.

Highlights of the report

According to IMANI, out of 29 policies being
promised by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), only
one was found to be realistic.

On the free SHS policy promise by the NPP, IMANI
said it would cost GH¢3.6 billion to implement
the policy which is half the budget allocation for
education. It also noted that the party’s
promise to revive the National Health Insurance
Scheme (NHIS) was immeasurable.

For the National Democratic Congress (NDC), IMANI
concluded that six out of 20 promises made so far
were realistic and attainable.

From its analysis, IMANI also identified that of
the 49 promises made by the PPP, only three of
them were measurable and attainable.

One of the PPP promises, IMANI found to be
unrealistic was the free education policy from
primary to the SHS level.

The think tank also concluded that out of the 38
promises made so far by the Convention People’s
Party’s (CPP), only four were measurable and
attainable.

One of the unattainable policies IMANI identified
is the mobilization of two million youth to plant
1.2 million almond trees to raise over $3
million.

On the part of the National Democratic Party
(NDP), IMANI noted that the party had failed to
come out with a plan of action to address the
myriad of challenges it said were affecting the
various sectors of the economy.

Source - Graphic.com.gh

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