Christmas vrs Elections

With barely a week to the Christmas festivities, signs of the usual festive mood in the country is so far lacking, according to a cross section of traders at the Accra Central Business District.

This year's elections, e specially the up coming run-off has resulted in low patronage of goods and taken the fervour that usually characterised the Christmas festivities in the country. 

Most traders the Daily Graphic interviewed blamed the lack of patronage of their wares on the  elections. According to some of the traders who interacted with this reporter, most  of the citizenry were cautious about the outcome of the run-off, hence the low  patronage of goods in the market centres.

A market survey conducted by the Daily Graphic has revealed that most consumers had  deserted the streets of Accra which is usually crowded with thousands of shoppers and hawkers during this period.

Mr Daniel Asare who  sells clothes at the popular CMB ( Cocoa Marketing Board), said   sales were good before the elections but  reduced drastically a week to the elections  because most people had to travel out of town while others were waiting for the election results to be announced before  venturing outside their homes.

He also blamed the economy for the low patronage. He said  most workers had not been paid while others were very thrifty.

The Lava shop, one of the popular shops for  Christmas shoppers,  was virtually empty, as only a handful of shoppers were seen transacting business. Mr Henry Frimpong, the Senior Salesman, also blamed the elections and the utterances of politicians  for the current apathy of customers.

 He said some of the utterances discouraged people from coming out to shop.  

He said: “ They are just not coming out to shop; this is very unusual”. He, however, expressed optimism that people would troop  to the markets  to buy their Christmas goodies before and after the run-off, depending on the  outcome of the  elections.

The situation at the Melcom Shopping Centre was encouraging as customers thronged there to shop. 

The manager of the shop, Mr  Nicholas Oliveua, said although patronage was good it was not as it used to be during non-electioneering years. 

Some customers who spoke to the Daily Graphic said  the elections had taken a toll on their normal shopping habits because of the fear of possible outbreak of violence. They also expressed optimism that things would change for the better after the run-off on December 28, 2008.

Story by Caleb Enstir Eghan