President John Mahama says on the back of his good works, he derserves an overwhelming re-election victory when polls open December 7.
The governing National Democratic Congress candidate, John Mahama, who pulled 50.63% in 2012 presidential elections appealed to Ghanaians to improve this margin and give him 60 percent of the votes.
‘I don’t want 50.7%. I want 59%, 58%, 60%” he said at a rally at Sewfi Wiaso in the Western region Monday.
He explained that a comprehensive victory will discourage the opposition from challenging the results in court as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) did in 2012.
Discussing president Mahama’s search for a massive endorsement, political analyst Joe Jackson told Joy News Monday, “if he won by 60% then it is landslide. I doubt that the election will be that wide in the margins. It will be a lot more closer than that”.
The highest any presidential candidate has obtained since Ghana’s return to democracy in 1992 was 58.4% for the NDC candidate Jerry John Rawlings.
Ghana’s electoral system requires that the winner must have 50% plus one, failure of which triggers a second round between the two leading candidates.
Ghana last went for a run-off in 2000 and 2008 elections, a prospect which the main rivals, the NPP and NDC are keen to avoid in 2016.
They have both predicted a ‘one touch victory’.
Out of three polls published in the media, only one poll has predicted a Mahama victory.
One published by Political scientists at the University of Ghana examined 23 swing constituencies and concluded a win for NPP Presidential candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
The UK-based Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) has also said the Greater Accra region will swing to the NPP.
Ghanaian pollster and Editor of the Daily Dispatch Ben Ephson has a poll pointing to a one-touch victory for the incumbent.
Ben Ephson predicts Mr. Mahama will secure 52.4% while New Patriotic Party’s Nana Akufo-Addo will obtain 45.9% with the other parties claiming a meagre 1.7%.
President John Mahama has also said his own independent scientific “we have been doing our own scientific polling….the numbers are looking great and so I am confident that from what is being done scientifically, plus or minus any margin of error, we will make 50% plus”.
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