Dec 7 could record high spoilt ballots due to NPP, NDC positions – Analyst

A political commentator, Charles Mintaba, has forecasted that the 2020 general elections could witness an increase in spoilt ballots due to how close the two main political parties are positioned on the ballot paper.

“The NDC and NPP together will get more than 95 percent of the presidential votes. And if you look at how impervious supporters of these two political parties are, it is very difficult to change their minds. Now, we have to admit that quite a good number of people genuinely have a problem with thumb-printing. And you realize that on the ballot paper there is only a thin line that will separate President Akufo-Addo and former President John Dramani Mahama.

“So, imagine what will happen on voting day. Mind you, people come to vote with either a frustrated, undecided or a confused mindset.”

He continued: “I would have wished that between the NPP and NDC, we would have had about three other candidates. This way, the NPP and NDC would have been better differentiated so as not to cause any sort of confusion in the minds of the voters.”

When asked whether the colours of the two main political parties are not visible enough, he responded that “even though we have the colours, we still record spoilt ballots during every election and sometimes the percent is worrisome”.

Sharing his thoughts on the positioning of the NDC and NPP on the ballot paper for the 2020 Presidential Election in an exclusive interview with editors.3news.com, Mr. Mintaba stated that another problem he foresees is the political slogan adopted by the NPP which he thinks may affect it on December 7.

“Until the balloting, the NPP adopted four more to do more. At every turn, you see members of the NPP both young and old with the four-finger gesture. So, the number four became synonymous with the NPP. Before you could say jack, there were T-shirts and other paraphernalia with the number four. So, for a lot of the NPP members the number four has already been registered on their minds. Now that, the party will be number one of the ballot paper, I think there will be a problem”.

Mr. Mintaba noted that compared to the NDC, the NPP must quickly re-engineer its campaign slogan for it to be in tandem with their position on the ballot paper as “majority of its members especially the aged have become familiar with the number four”.

“The NPP must quickly go on the drawing board and re-engineer its slogan. Now that they are number one on the ballot paper, they have to reconcile that with the ‘Four more for Nana’ slogan. I think they have to abandon the number slogan and come up with another slogan that has nothing to do with numbers. I have heard in certain quarters the slogan first in everything. They have to quickly work around it and reinforce it if they want to use first. But I think it will help if they don’t use numbers”.

On whether or not the position will affect the number of votes of the political parties, Mr. Mintaba is doubtful it will have any impact as “for the die-hard members they have already made up their minds and will vote regardless of where their party is positioned”.

By Eric Yaw Adjei|editors.3news.com|Ghana