2024 Elections: NPP worried as NDC wins first vote test

More Ghanaians are expressing negative sentiments about the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) on social media compared to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), a study by IMANI Africa has showed.

According to the survey, dubbed ‘The IMANI Public Understanding and Literacy for Sentiment and Election analysis (PULSE)’, more than 30% of comments passed on the NPP on social media were negative.

For the NDC, the PULSE showed that over 21% of sentiments on the party on social media were negative.

“Purely negative sentiment over the period increased for both party candidates. People that spoke of NPP negatively, however had a higher percentage increase from around 23% to just over 30%, representing a 7% increase in negative sentiment against NDC’s approximately 4% increment in negative sentiment for the period under review,” part of a statement issued on the survey reads.

IMANI added, “The inference here is that generally more people feel negative about both parties, with NPP however, having more mentions and more growing negative sentiment.

The poll also showed that the number of positive sentiments by both the NDC and the NPP reduced under the period in question.

IMANI explained that the reduction in positive sentiments shows that either former President John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the NDC, or Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the NPP, have engaged in activities pleasing to the electorates.

“Both sentiments of the NDC and NPP took very marginal hits. Interestingly, the results here show a dead-even level of sentiment, which means people still feel the same way and positivity is largely unchanged. Both NPP and NDC had exactly 10.22% positive sentiment out of the total sentiments analysed.

“This further shows that there has not been any compelling event or pronouncement by both candidates that has triggered any upsurge of positivity. It is still early days in the campaigns of both frontrunners, so subsequent observations will be very instructive,” it stated.

About the IMANI PULSE survey:

In the run-up to the 2024 General Elections, IMANI presents PULSE, a fortnightly curated social media-based sentiment analysis report designed to follow the “pulse” of Ghanaians.

The IMANI Public Understanding and Literacy for Sentiment and Election analysis (PULSE) aims to determine the sentiment on social media regarding the major political contenders for the election, as well as influential trends and influencers that are shaping social media discourse. The analyses are referenced from the following platforms:

1. Facebook
2. X (formerly, Twitter)
3. YouTube
4. Web
5. TikTok
6. Podcasts
7. Newsfeeds

PULSE monitors primarily the two main contenders, the NPP and the NDC. For this fourth episode of the series, we are adding the sentiments and influence of the other parties, the PNC, CPP, ACP and PPP, as well as independent candidates like the Butterfly Movement, the New Force and other emerging forces on the landscape.
Information is gathered via main keywords. As news themes change, analysis will be done on these keyword associations.