A survey conducted by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has established that a higher proportion of Ghanaians have expressed their willingness to vote for a woman as President when the opportunity comes.

According to the survey conducted across the nation, a relatively larger proportion of respondents (66.2 percent) affirmed their readiness to vote for a woman as President, while 23.2 percent preferred men.

The survey tagged: “The Election 2020: Matters of Concern to the Ghanaian Voter,” has been an electoral task of the NCCE since 2004. It provides quantitative data through opinion polls and sample surveys on matters of concern to the Ghanaian voter.

The 2020 survey gathered information from 9,541 Ghanaians from all 275 constituencies in September 2020.

NCCE Chairperson, Ms. Josephine Nkrumah, explained in an interview with Ghana News Agency that the objectives of the survey were to explore the willingness of the people to cast their vote.

It was also to provide political parties, Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates with key issues of concern to the Ghanaian voter, and outline expectations from citizens during the General Elections.

Ms. Nkrumah noted that approximately nine percent of the respondents interviewed were undecided if they would cast their ballots during the Presidential election, which was similar to the findings of the 2016 survey with a slightly lower margin of 2.9 percent.

The study found that of the 7680 respondents who voted in Election 2016, a higher proportion of 69.6 percent, are ready to vote for the same party they voted as against 10.2 percent who will change their voting pattern.

“More male (12.6 percent) have voted in all seven Presidential and Parliamentary elections compared to female 8.0 percent. With regards to age, less than one percent of Ghanaians between 18-40 years had ever voted more than four times,” she explained.

The 2020 Matters of Concern survey showed that out of a sample size of 1206 respondents who have never voted in any of the elections, less than one percent of them were aged 20 years; while a higher proportion of 12.2 percent were below 20 years.

The survey also established some respondents were unwilling to vote on December 7th as a result of lack of developmental activities in their constituency - 22.0 percent; personal reasons - 19 percent; and inability to acquire the new voters' ID card - 15.7 percent.

The 2020 Presidential and Parliamentary election in Ghana, becomes the eighth in succession under the Fourth Republic.

Ms. Nkrumah explained elections provided the citizenry an opportunity to select their representatives in accordance with Article (42) of the 1992 Constitution. The Constitution enjoins “every citizen of 18 years of age or above and of sound mind the right to vote”.

The 2020 NCCE report is the result of detailed data analyzed, therefore beyond serving as a gauge on voter turnout, the report will augment the understanding of the effectiveness of the several interventions initiated by past and present Governments on Education, Health and Employment needs towards improving the lives of Ghanaians.

Concerns on education, health, and employment have been the dominant issues of concern reported in NCCE’s previous ‘Matters of Concern to the Ghanaian Voter surveys.