Bawumia vs Mahama Presidential Debates- Will debate impact voter choices?

By Rebecca Ekpe

As the December 7 election inches closer and with the major political parties in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) tickets complete, the conversation about debates continues to take centre stage in Ghana’s political discourse.

How critical or important are presidential debates to the ticket? How impactful will a Presidential Debate be on the chances of winning a Presidential ticket?

NPP Presidential Candidate, Dr. Bawumia has challenged his opponent, the NDC’s John Mahama, to a debate on his ‘’24Hour Economy’’ policy, but Spokesperson Joyce Bawa Mongtari thinks John Mahama does not need to debate Dr. Bawumia.

Senior Political Science Lecturer, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante in an interview stated that even though debates have a role to play in a democracy and elections, for that matter, debates do not necessarily impact voter choices per se.

‘’Debates have little impact on voter choices, if they do so fine, people do not need debates to know the issue with the economy, times are hard,’’ he said.

Dr. Asah-Asante, however, believes that debates can elicit responses to lingering questions and give the opportunity for issues to be clarified. However, he was quick to add that should the debaters fail to address the issues as expected by the citizens, that further creates ambiguity and may not be helpful to political campaigns.

‘’Debates may not necessarily affect voter choices, but it obviously adds steam to the democratic exercise of electing a President,’’ he said.

In Ghana, Presidential Candidates of both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have over the years not been consistent with participating in Presidential Debates.

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