Election 2024: Power outages will affect NPP – Political scientist

A Senior Political Science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Asah-Asante, says the recent intermittent power outages will affect the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming 2024 general elections.

He observed that energy issues are one of the indices voters use to determine which candidate or party to vote for.

Dr. Asah-Asante mentioned that intermittent power outages during the tenure of former President John Dramani Mahama played a major role in his exit from office, as the then-opposition NPP used it as a campaign tool.

“The elections that took Mahama home were fought on the basis of dumsor. This party [NPP] took advantage of that and drummed into the ears of Ghanaians and it formed part of the calculations or contributions that Ghanaians made in deciding who to vote for.

“Remember the dumsor economy which Dr. Bawumia made noise about which was legitimate at the time and the same legitimacy can be brought to bear on the current dumsor which the government is pretending doesn't exist.”

Dr. Asah-Asante further criticised the government's handling of current intermittent power outages, stating that citizens were bearing the brunt of it. He stressed that the government should admit the challenges and indicate its willingness to resolve them.

“We feel it. We experience it. Let no one deceive himself or herself that the fact that you have not said it bluntly out loud means dumsor does not exist. It does and nobody can deceive anybody. Governance must be handled with truthfulness.

“Proceed with integrity, there is a problem. Just be forthright with it. Come out and say this problem exists, but as leaders, we will try and fix it.”

—CitiNewsroom