IMANI Africa, a policy think-tank, has criticized the current manifestos of three leading political parties for the 2024 election, stating that they do not offer tangible solutions to the economic challenges facing the country.
The think-tank described most of the promises in the manifestos as “non-quantifiable,” vague, lacking clarity, feasibility, and failing to provide timelines for implementation.
The analysis was conducted by IMANI Africa into the content of the manifestos of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the Movement for Change.
Mr. Dennis Asare, a Senior Research Associate at IMANI Africa, who presented the findings in Accra on Tuesday, stated that most of the promises were “overly ambitious” and lacked cost implications.
IMANI noted that there were 574 promises across various sectors, with the majority focusing on the economy.
Mr. Asare detailed that 216 promises concerning the economy were non-quantifiable, alongside four promises related to governance.
Additionally, there were 42 promises pertaining to education and social services, as well as 76 promises each regarding energy and infrastructure that lacked clarity.
“If you take the NPP alone, using the methodology used, we can count about 574 promises with most of the promises centering on the economy.
“There are more non-quantifiable promises than the ones that we can specifically say they want to provide.
“In effect, there are more vague promises in that manifesto than there are quantifiable ones,” he said.
Regarding the NDC’s manifesto, Mr. Asare stated that IMANI Africa identified 851 promises, many of which were deemed “empty.”
He pointed out that 231 of those promises related to the economy were non-specific. Additionally, there were 36 promises concerning governance, 53 regarding education and social services, 12 related to infrastructure, and 77 associated with energy that shared the same lack of specificity.
“The NDC manifesto has about 851. In the NDC manifesto also most of the promises centre around the economy, followed by education and then social service.
“Same as the NPP, we see a lot more non-quantifiable promises than quantifiable and semi-quantifiable ones, which also show some more vague promises in the NDC’s manifesto,” he said.
On that of the Movement for Change, Mr. Asare said the policy think-tank identified 354 promises with similar characteristics.
He called for enhanced citizen engagement and advocacy to help people understand the implications of these promises for development.
“What we are saying is that most promises within the manifestos of these three political parties are actually vague.
“You cannot quantify them or really see the specific services that they want to offer. So, in the case any of them is elected, it will be very difficult for you to hold them accountable.
“Secondly, it will be very difficult for you to have an idea of its costs and implementation process,” he said.
In terms of specific policies, Mr. Asare rejected the NPP’s promise to establish and fully resource a Small and Medium Enterprise bank and the NDC’s women’s development bank, indicating that there are already many banks.
Instead, he urged both parties to address issues confronting access to credit by SMEs and traders.
Mr. Asare also rejected the Movement for Change’s promise to increase the tax revenue to Gross Domestic Product ratio to 20 per cent, describing it as “ambitious” and “unachievable.”
Despite these weaknesses, he stated that the manifestos of the NDC and NPP contained useful information and good promises that, when implemented, would address some key sector challenges.
Mr. Asare lauded the NPP’s promise to cut three per cent of GDP from government expenditure to support the private sector, saying that was achievable.
He also described the NDC’s promise to constitute an independent Public Debt Management Office as well as allocate special allowances for teachers who accepted postings to deprived communities as “laudable” and “feasible.”
GNA
