The idea of manifesto or agenda in a political setting is to
inform the people who will be governed by the elected representatives about
salient socioeconomic and political issues that need to be addressed for the
betterment of every citizen and the setting as a whole.
In this piece, which appears to be the last effort from the
Positive Campaign Initiative, as voters in Osun State go to the polls in the
next few hours, the organisation analysed the connection between the ruling
party’s proposed programmes and those of opposition parties.
As observed in our previous analyses, the September 22
contest is between the All Progressives Congress and the main opposition
parties, comprising the People’s Democratic Party, Action Democratic Party,
African Democratic Party and Social Democratic Party. Hence, the need to find
out how each party has been able to differentiate itself in terms of the
manifesto presented to the people during the campaign period.
Like what was obtainable in the previous governorship
elections in the State, candidates and parties promised functional education,
rapid economic development, employment creation, agricultural revolution,
improved healthcare services, security, labour and pensioners’ welfare,
industrial and human capital development. Some of the parties and candidates
also pledged to prioritise infrastructural development in the State.
These were further dissected by the PCI analysts. The
results indicate that parties converged and diverged in their manifestoes. The
ruling party had positive connection with one of the main opposition parties.
Analysis specifically shows that APC’s agenda aligned with the Social
Democratic Party’s agenda by 55.9%, indicating that electing one of them would
be good for the people because their programmes have the propensity of solving
problems affecting them (people). Analysis equally indicates that the
ruling party connected with the People’s Democratic Party, African Democratic
Congress and Action Democratic Party, but negatively. The negative connection
establishes that the ruling party’s programmes are more inclusive than the PDP,
ADP and ADC agenda for the people. We specifically discovered 5.1%, 12.5%
and 11.6% reduction in PDP, ADP and ADC respectively when APC’s programmes
encompassed all issues affecting the people in the State.
Despite this, the main opposition platforms seem to have
better programmes for voters to consider. Analysis reveals that ADC and ADP are
connected by 68.8%, the highest connection among the opposition parties,
followed by SDP and PDP with 54.4% connection. The 43.9% connection attained by
the SDP and ADC placed them in third position, and SDP and ADP in fourth
position with 33.1% within the opposition sphere.
These insights indicate that if voters intend to vote based
on the manifestoes, there are possible options to choose from. From the first
analysis, there is APC and SDP pot to pick from, which is the first pot. The
second pot is where we have ADC and ADP while the third pot contains SDP and
PDP. The fourth and fifth pots comprises of SDP and ADC as well as SDP and ADP
respectively.
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