Education, health and employment political yardstick for votes - NCCE

Report

Accra, Aug. 26, GNA - Education, Health and Employment have been identified as political yardstick to warrant the vote of electorate in Elections 2004, a National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) survey report has established.

The NCCE survey was based on "Issues of Concern to the Voters", out of twelve variables 42.4 per cent ranked education as the most vital issue they would consider before casting their vote; 16.2 per cent rooted for health; 10.3 per cent considered employment critical; 8.6 per cent would vote based on the agriculture policy of parties; and only 8.5 per cent of the respondents would consider women and children issues.

The report, launched in Accra on Thursday by NCCE also indicated that only 3.6 per cent of the respondent said they would consider how political parties intended to tackle corruption before voting. Other ratings were; 3.5 per cent said internal security would be their determining factor in voting during Elections 2004; while 2.4 per cent said housing would be paramount issues; 1.9 per cent of respondent said they would consider youth related issues as vital to win their vote and industrialisation, sports and Ghana's foreign relation were all rated below 2 per cent.

The survey conducted between June and August 2004 was to collate and provide political parties with a list of issues of concern to the voter as well as outline expectations from civil society and individuals during Election 2004.

The survey covered only 200 constituencies (without the 30 new Constituencies) with a total of 30 questionnaires administered in each. Mrs Gertrude Zakariah-Ali, NCCE Director of Research, explained that the questionnaires were administered at the constituency headquarters as well as five electoral areas.

On the gender distribution of the survey, she said 40.9 per cent represented females while 59.1 represented male views. Mrs Zakariah-Ali said 97.4 per cent of the respondent said they would vote in Elections 2004; 0.8 per cent were undecided with 1.8 per cent not ready to vote.

The gender distribution of voting depicted that 59,4 per cent males as against 40.6 per cent females said they were ready for the polls.