Campaign on issues — ICEG
The Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Certified Economics of Ghana (ICEG), Mr Daniel Anim Prempeh Amateye, has called on political parties to use the 2016 election campaign to discuss issues that will help promote the welfare of businesses or risk losing votes from the business community.
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That, he said, was needed to help open doors for more business opportunities for the country to boost the economy.
It will also help avoid disaffection among their respective supporters, which can result in conflict, thereby derailing the peaceful socio-political stability businesses are currently enjoying.
Mr Amateye made the appeal when some executives of the ICEG called on the National Democratic Congress (NDC) at the party’s head office in Accra.
The meeting was the first of several others by the institute to help interact with political parties and get them to give currency to business issues during the election campaign.
Peace for business survival
The CEO of the ICEG explained that businesses needed a conducive environment to thrive, hence the need for politicians to maintain peace in the country by campaigning on issues.
He noted that there was a direct correlation between politics, economic growth and development which could all be achieved with a stable democracy.
“We want them to make critical analysis of issues backed with data, which will provide informed discussions across the board,” he said.
He also charged them to sell their message to the electorate in ways that would not create conflicts in the country.
“Our core message is that we crave the indulgence of all the political parties so that they resort to issues-based discussions, which can be in the area of infrastructure,” he said.
Politicians were also asked to be tolerant with one another since all the political parties wanted the betterment of the citizenry albeit their divergence on national issues.
Agenda setting
The General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, charged the media to come up with relevant discussions that would contribute to issues-based campaigns to make this year’s election peaceful.
He said the programme line-ups of some media houses for the day did not support issues-based discussions, something he said threatened the progress of political parties.
For the NDC, Mr Nketiah said the party had a great interest in driving an issues-based message.
“We appear to be working in the same direction as the ICEG wants. As a ruling party, we have a big interest in driving an issues-based campaign and it will be in the interest of Ghana for political parties in the country to run issues-based campaigns”, he noted.
The ICEG is a professional body of economists in the country, which also trains people to become economists.