Pollster Benjamin Ephson, has advised parties contesting the December 7, 2020 polls to devise a strategic plan in the dissemination of their campaign messages.
According to him, his review of recent data released by the National Identification Authority (NIA) shows, farmers, students, traders, unemployed and business persons dominate the groups of persons who used the NIA card (GhanaCard) to acquire their voter ID cards.
Mr. made the revelation on Angel FM’s ‘Anɔpa Bɔfoɔ’ morning show on Monday, October 5, whilst giving a breakdown of the categorised voters from the NIA’s registration exercise.
“Looking at these 10 grouped voters consisting [3.1m farmers, 2.7m students, 1.6m retail market traders, over 905 thousand unemployed, over 607 thousand business persons, over 525 thousand tailors- dressmakers-upholsters, over 523 thousand teachers, over 424 thousand hairdressers-barbers-beautician, over 351 thousand are taxi and van drivers while the retired are over 328 thousand] out of the 15.5 million, there are five categories also consisting of [retail market traders, business men and women, tailors-sewers-upholsters-hairdressers-barbers, taxi and van drivers] that possess their own work.
“Adding all the five together, you’ll realise that 3.5 million are working on their own. So as a political party or leader, you would have to devise a strategic plan to make sure that you address the concerns of these people,” he said.
The Managing Editor of the Daily Dispatch newspaper assured that with such a detailed breakdown of the data, politicians should figure out the needs of such groups of voters and communicate wisely, how they intend to meet those needs as contained in their manifestos, in order to catch their attention.
He said presidential candidates, particularly the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), can better their chances of winning the election if they respond to the data through their campaign messages.
