Expanding or improving the infrastructure of a country does not sway the minds of the electorate in such numbers to bring about a win at the polls, Mr Isaac Brako, a political science lecturer at the University of Education, Winneba, has said.
His comment comes on the back of recent inauguration of projects by President John Mahama ahead of elections on December 7.
Mr Mahama on Monday, 14 November inaugurated the €74 million Kwame Nkrumah Interchange to ease traffic in the capital, following up on Tuesday with the opening of a state-of-the-art sports emporium at Bukom. The president has also cut the sod for expansion works at the Tema Port and has also inaugurated other projects across the country.
Mr Brako, speaking to Accra News Wednesday, said several reasons influence the way Ghanaians vote and the construction of the interchange, for instance, though will improve the traffic situation, will not influence every voting decision.
He said, for example, members of the 12 labour unions pushing for the payment of their Tier-2 pension contributions may not be interested in the projects being undertaken by the government. He added that in similar vein, for those battling unemployment years after leaving school, their focus would be on factors other than the emergence of projects around them, while in strongholds of parties, voters have their minds made up already and would not be swayed to vote for the government based on “eleventh hour” projects.
“So every government carries out infrastructural projects. It is every government’s responsibility. In terms of governance or the functions of the state, provision of infrastructure is basic. Even the colonial Guggisberg government which was not given any funds to develop the colonies laid down some infrastructure. So if that is what you are relying on [for votes], then the administration of John Kufuor would not have been voted out because they increased the [country’s] infrastructure. So it (infrastructural development) will influence voters but not in numbers that will bring [electoral] victory,” Mr Brako added.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
