In the recent episode of IMANI’s Pulse Report, spanning the period from late June to mid-July, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has notably garnered a higher positive public sentiment on social media as compared to the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP).
According to the report, the ruling party seems to have lost some of the positive narrative on social media commentary to the NDC over the period
“This is one of the first times since monitoring that the NDC seems to have more positive social media mentions”. The report stated.
Negative Sentiment Analysis
For the NDC, the report noted that the negative commentary about its Presidential candidate, former President John Dramani Mahama remained steady at around 10% until July 7th, when it spiked to 30%.
This increase, the report noted coincided with the announcement of the NPP’s running mate, indicating a reactionary uptick in criticism.
Further fluctuations according to the report were observed around July 10th and 11th, driven by discussions about challenges posed to former President John Dramani Mahama for a public debate with Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the NPP’s Vice Presidential nominee.
“Overall, negative sentiment against the NDC were around 23.2% of all mentions of related keywords over the period. This represents just over a 1% drop from the previous level of 24.67% for the period of June”.
IMANI’s PULSE Report Episode 10
The NPP on the other hand, according to the report experienced significant events that triggered negative commentary.
Initially hovering around 15%, negative sentiment surged to 30% following the announcement of the party’s running mate on July 4th.
According to the report, this was followed by a sharp rise to 50% on July 10th, before stabilizing at around 35% by mid-July.
“To further drill down the causes, there was a comparison of NPP-related keywords featuring the word “NAPO”, the nickname of the Vice-Presidential nominee for the NPP slot. The analytics here from a sample of about 1200 posts with the keyword NAPO: Positive 39(3.2%); Negative 1029(84.9%) and Neutral 144(11.9%).
“This is a reflection of how social media received the unveiling of NAPO based on sentiment analysis. Most of it was triggered based on his pronouncements regarding the track record of the current government’s achievement and its comparison to the achievements of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of independent Ghana”.
IMANI’s PULSE Report Episode 10
The report also added that further issues that triggered negative comments were the SSNIT issue and the reactions to allegations of state capture which were also heavily commented about on social media among others.
Overall, the report emphasized that the NPP has been at the receiving end of more negative sentiment, perhaps the biggest recorded over the period, with significant focus and scrutiny coming from events related to their ticket.
“There is more robust commentary emerging and this will seem to be the trend towards December as the campaign period is all but heating up now”, the report stated, adding that the NPP’s negative sentiment increased to 36.9% over the period from a previous level of 31.4%.
Mentions and Reach
Moreover, despite the negative sentiment, the NPP continues to lead in overall social media mentions, however, per the report the NDC has made significant strides, with its social media reach almost matching the NPP’s.
Notably, the report indicated that NDC’s social media engagement is more organic and robust, especially on platforms like Twitter and TikTok, where younger users and women are more active in political discussions.
In conclusion, the report indicated that other political contenders, including Alan Kyerematen of the Movement for Change, and Nana Kwame Bediako of the New Force Movement have not gained measurable traction during this period.
Others include political parties such as the People’s National Convention (PNC), Convention People’s Party (CPP), Hassan Ayariga’s All People’s Congress, and the Progressive People’s Party (PPP).
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