Dr. Theo Acheampong, a Political Risk Analayst, has disclosed that the government’s debt restructuring exercise will surely have a huge political consequence for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the upcoming general elections.
Dr Acheampong’s comments come to reinforce the fears of some NPP stalwarts who have expressed concern that the much protested domestic debt restructuring programme and the inclusion of individual bondholders would eventually lead to the mass rejection of the party in 2024.
“That’s why you will see the likes of Kyei Mensah Bonsu and other people within the party now saying, ‘look, hang on with this thing because if we’re not too careful it is actually going to bounce back or bite us back quite strongly.”
Dr Acheampong
According to him, while incumbent parties often do not perform well in a second term, the added burden of the debt restructuring exercise and the effects it will have on Ghana’s middle class especially, will potentially sway voters away from the ruling party.
Dr. Acheampong, who was speaking in an interview explained that, while the middle class often tend to side with the New Patriotic Party due to a shared ideology of property ownership, the devastating effects on their finances could lead to lack of interest and a rejection of the NPP come 2024.
“If you look at the middle class broadly in Ghana, many of them are aspirational and they tend to most likely be people that will subscribe to the political ideology of the NPP as compared to the NDC in a sense.
“Therefore, the current debt restructuring exercise in the form that the government is seeking to push, should that go through, will actually leave people worse off. And politically, when people are worse off and they’re angry, of course they will protest that with the vote.”
Dr Acheampong
Ghana’s Middle Class Are Primarily The Movers and Shakers Of The Economy And Elections
Political Science Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, has also advised the New patriotic Party against ruffling the feathers of the middle class through the domestic debt exchange porgramme.
According to him, the country’s middle class are primarily the movers and shakers of the economy and elections, therefore governments that antagonize them tend to face a lot of problems.
Dr Asante indicated that, the middle class are well positioned to understand the big issues and commumicate them clearly to the masses, thus an attack on them could result into a much larger pushback against the government. He revealed that the failure of government to dialogue and get the middle class on board will be their undoing in the 2024 elections.
“Let’s cast our minds back to the 1970s, Acheampong era for that matter, you saw it was the middle class that really fought the government. You know, Association of Professional Groups, Ghana Bar Association and all that took the government on.
“So when you are in government and you have any policy that tend to ruffle the feathers of the middle class then you’re likely to be confronted head-on by this group of people who are able to articulate clearly what the issues are to the ordinary man. And remember that in politics one vote is so important like the hundreds of votes, because one vote can move somebody from a candidate to become a president, a candidate to become an MP. And so I thought the DDE wouldn’t take this path, but here we are.”
Dr Asah
According to him, without finding common ground in the ongoing negotiations, the debt exchange programme could end in an impasse.
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