2024 Elections: Flagbearers must campaign on broad national policies – John Kwakye

The Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Dr John Kwakye has told all the flagbearers to campaign on broader national policies.

Rather than doing this, he observed, the president hopefuls are making promises to smaller groups.

“It is a shame that presidential candidates are making promises to every constituent group instead of campaigning on broad national policies. Stooping to conquer indeed!” he wrote on X.

It is a shame that presidential candidates are making promises to every constituent group instead of campaigning on broad national policies. Stooping to conquer indeed!

— J. K. Kwakye (@JohnKwabenaKwa1) June 12, 2024

The two leading flagbearers are aggressively campaigning to be elected president in this year’s elections.

Flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Former President John Dramani Mahama said he has a track record of implementing policies to develop the country.

To that end, he says Ghanains should trust his police proposals ahead of the elections this year and vote for him.

“Yes, the NDC and I have a track record, and we will do much more! We built roads, interchanges, and schools; the new Terminal 3 at the Kotoka International Airport, transformed the Tamale and Kumasi Airports into international airports and to operate at night; secured funds to build new terminals for both the Tamale and Kumasi airport,” he wrote on his X platform.

Mr Mahama has promised Ghanaians to have a few ministers if he is voted for to become president again.

He also promised to reduce government spending and use the savings to improve the lives of the people.

“I promise you a leaner government. We’ll have fewer ministers and cut government expenditure, and any savings that we make will be used to better the lives of our teachers and other national workers,” he said in an address on Sunday, June 9.

Mr Mahama also reiterated that his 24-hour economy idea is what will develop the economy.

The 24-hour initiative is the answer for now and in the future, he said.

He said, “It will create an enabling environment with deliberate policies for businesses, companies, and government institutions to operate 24/7 in a three-eight-hour shift system.”

His counterpart in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia promised that if he is elected president in this year’s elections, his administration will ensure that the import duties in Ghana are not above those of  Lome, Togo.

He observed that  Lome port is a major competitor for Ghana. People usually import goods through the Lome port and smuggle them into Ghana.

To stop the smuggling, he said, Ghana will charge the same import duties as Lome or even lower.

“Tema port will be fully automated. We are bringing a new policy for import duty, we are going to align the import duty at Tema port with the import duty at the Lome Port. The ports in Ghana will not charge higher duties than the ports in Lome, this is our policy, we will not charge higher duties because they are our competitors.

“If you are higher all the containers will go to  Lome and they will smuggle them into Ghana and you will lose the revenue so we are going to make sure that under a new policy, we will be either lower or the same as  Lome. That is the policy and that will help our business people, no need for smuggling,” Dr Bawumia said in a breakfast meeting with NPP regional leaders ahead of his start of the campaign activities, on Monday, April 29.

Touting his achievements, for the first time in the history of Ghana, consumers of electricity can sit in the comfort of their homes or wherever they find themselves and buy electric power without having to join any line at the offices of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

This, he said, is among the list of innovative measures introduced by the Akufo-Addo administration.

“For the first time in our history, people can buy electricity units on their mobile phones, we take it for granted now but a few years ago you had to go and queue at the ECG payment center to buy electricity,”

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