At least 70 percent of Ghanaians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, a study has revealed.

The survey, which was conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) and covered the period of July 2 to 18, painted the disillusionment of Ghanaians regarding the overall management of the economy.

Speaking at a press conference to present the findings, Senior Researcher Fellow at CDD, Daniel Armah Attoh, said Ghanaians are worried about their own living conditions and the danger the worsening economy poses to their lives.

Economy:

According to the report, government “receives poor grades from a clear majority of Ghanaians across a range of micro-indicators - narrowing income gaps, keeping prices down, creating jobs, improving the living standard of the poor and managing the economy.”

A majority of the respondents rated government as “having performed very or fairly badly in the delivery of a range of economic and social goods.”

Crime Prevention:

Regarding the issue of crime prevention, the study found that Ghanaians are happy with government’s fight against crime.

Government performance, Mr  Attoh said, “is somewhat positive with respect to crime and violence prevention where a minority four in 10 offers a negative assessment.”

Government handling priority national issues:

Ghanaians did not mince words when they suggested government’s handling of issues such as unemployment, electricity, and education is not encouraging.

They believe that another political party can do a better job.

On the Presidency:

In evaluating the performance of the President, there was a split with nearly half of the respondents approving the overall job performance of President Mahama while the other half think otherwise.

Issues ahead of 2016 polls:

Regarding the issues that will prove a decider in their choice of candidate, “Solid majority of Ghanaians claim the following factors will have great deal or some influence on the choices of candidates or parties in the 2016 polls, bad roads, government corruption, power outages, high prices of food stuff, access to medical care, use of abusive language and posturing of politicians.”

However, Ghanaians said gifts, the religious affiliation of candidates and region of origin of candidates will play no role in deciding their preferred candidate.

The survey was conducted from a sample size of 2,400 adult Ghanaians cutting across 163 districts and 291 towns and villages.