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Impact of Manifestos and Political promises in lead up to December 7 Polls

By David Owusu Amoah, Technical Advisor, Ministry of Information

Preparations for general elections are characterised by a wide range of issues. One thing that stands out as a major characteristic of general elections is the making of political promises. Promises are made by politicians to signal to the electorate their intentions for seeking power for the voters to evaluate them based on these promises.

Democratic values are indeed entrenched in accountability. Making political promises can be useful and serves as an important benchmark for measuring performance of a Government.

Manifestos have long been important primary documents of political parties in established democracies all over the world. Campaign promises may change from election to election, but they are almost related to changing current issues that are on the minds of voters. Just like any promise, political promises can bring so much excitement that when they are later found to be empty, they can have serious consequences.

It is interesting to note that when political promises are made out of the blue on top of the head of a politician, it is often difficult to hold politicians accountable, especially when the promise may not be a party’s position spelt out clearly in a manifesto. One thing that is also worthy to note is that some political promises are given in a sketchy manner, such that when there is further probing into the mode of implementation of such a vision, it becomes a daunting task for party communicators.

Preparation for this year’s general election appears not to be any different since already the floodgate of promises appears to be widely opened and the electorate are inundated with these promises already.

Quite recently, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) launched its Manifesto in Takoradi in the Western Region. This was preceded by the launch of the youth Manifesto of National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Accra as well as the Great Transformation plan by the Movement for Change, among others. It is in the light of these that people have described the period as a manifesto season.
It is prudent to indicate that not every electorate has the luxury of time to peruse manifestos of political parties. Knowledge of the contents of party manifestos is very often made available to the general public through media discussions. Good party communicators therefore have a role to play as to how well the electorate would understand the contents of a manifesto.

Among the myriad of promises from these politicians upon which the electorate will be voting this year include ‘the No fees policy for first-year students in tertiary institutions,” the promise to “reduce electricity with solar power”, “free land registration for chiefs”, and the “24-hour economy”, among others.

The era of social media, where very often promises made on party campaign platforms are captured on tape, should be a reference point for politicians to weigh their words before releasing them as promises. For if it becomes immeasurably humiliating when politicians fall flat against their promise when there is a playback on what they promised to do and what they actually succeeded in accomplishing. Politicians seeking elections will do the electorate a great service by being guided by the S.M.A.R.T. acronym in management by ensuring that their promises are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and bound by Time, since this a sure way by which the electorate will weigh them on the scale during the next election.

One of the challenges that confront multiparty democracy is the contention between political party ideologies embedded in manifestos and national aspirations for sustainable national development. It is worthwhile to indicate that when development of a nation is steered strictly by a party manifesto and not a national development plan, it makes it difficult for other governments to use them. Invariably, implementation of some programmes is sometimes truncated as a result of change in Government, leading to waste of the country’s scarce resources.

As politicians outdoor their party manifestos in preparation for the Country’s general election, it is worthwhile for them to note that multiparty democracy is nothing more than a system of governance, a means to take a nation and its people forward. It is not an end in itself and should not be placed above national interest.

The National Development Planning Commission should be strengthened enough to be able to set the agenda for national development that has the buy-in of all political parties. This should serve as a yardstick by which manifestos of political parties will be measured. That way political party manifestos would come closer to all manifestoes and the difference may be in the pace at which one Government wants to develop.

Political parties from generation to generation will do the nation a great service by aligning their manifesto to this national vision that should be spearheaded by the National Development Planning Commission.

This will be the sure way for sustainable national development.