Ghanaians Prioritize Candidate Honesty in 2024 Elections, Survey Reveals

Accra: Ahead of the December 7 general election, the latest Afrobarometer survey has shown that honesty, character, and campaign promises are the primary factors influencing voters' decisions in Ghana. The survey highlights that a significant majority of Ghanaians consider these attributes crucial when selecting their leaders. According to Ghana News Agency, Dr. Edem Selormey, Director of Research at the Centre for the Ghana Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), presented the findings in Accra. The Afrobarometer survey, conducted in August 2024, involved a nationally representative sample of 2,400 adult Ghanaians. The survey results have a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level. The findings indicate that honesty is prioritized by 90 percent of respondents, while 88 percent value a candidate's character, and 59 percent focus on campaign promises. The survey also reveals that 58 percent of Ghanaians intend to vote for presidential and parliamentary candidates from the same p olitical party, while 15 percent plan to choose candidates from different parties. Only six percent expressed a preference for independent candidates. Furthermore, the survey notes that 85 percent of respondents felt little or no fear of political intimidation or violence during the last election campaign, contrasting with 14 percent who reported some level of fear. The Afrobarometer survey underscores that 81 percent of Ghanaians perceive elections as the best method for selecting their leaders, a sentiment that has remained consistently above 80 percent over the past two decades. Afrobarometer, a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network, has conducted nine survey rounds in up to 42 countries since 1999, with the tenth round initiated in January 2024. The organization's national partners carry out face-to-face interviews in the respondent's preferred language to gather reliable data on African experiences with democracy and governance.