Economist and Professor of Finance, Professor Godfred Alufar Bokpin says the ruling New Patriotic Party seems to have learnt a new lesson with the number of promises made in their recent manifesto.
He said the content of the party’s 2020 manifesto gives an indication that the party has taken into consideration criticisms against large number of promises and has worked towards that by reducing them in their recent manifesto.
“The NPP seems to have learnt a useful lesson given the criticisms that came with their huge promises and what they have been able to do, so you see a bit of a reduction and the need to consolidate some of their policies,” he said.
The NDC, however, he noted has not learnt such lessons.
“Unfortunately for the NDC, having been in power for eight years and the challenges they’ve seen, they seem to have gone the other way round,” he said.
His comments come as part of discussions on the manifestos of the two major political parties in the country.
The New Patriotic Party(NPP), in August launched its Manifesto which contained a total of 143 promises, as against a total of 510 promises made in 2016.
Subsequently, the NDC [in September] also launched theirs. The NDC had captured a total of 617 promises in their 2020 manifesto as against 666 promises in 2016.
Speaking on Joy News’ news analysis show, Newsfile on Saturday, Prof. Bopkin lamented the huge number of promises made by politicians ahead of elections.
He said political parties make too many promises that do not fit into the country’s fiscal space.
This, he says creates a problem of implementation and sustainability of many promises/projects listed.
Based on this, he commended the NPP for ensuring a drastic reduction in the number of intended policies ahead of a new administration.