Chiefly endorsement of incumbent presidential candidates influence votes

The painstaking study has confirmed that the rather unfortunate chiefly endorsement of incumbent presidential candidates has the potential of influencing voting patterns.

The study conducted by the Centre for Democratic Development(CDD) supported by The London School of Economics and Political Science and International Growth Centre(IGC) has amongst others suggested that traditional leaders' endorsements show a form of incumbency advantage.

Also, the study further seeks to reiterate to both politicians and campaign team members, as well as to chiefs that such endorsements violate the spirit of the constitution which bars chiefs from active politics and violates the code of royal ethics.

This, according to discussants at a "Research Dissemination on the Impact of Traditional Leader's Endorsement of Election Candidates" event which came up last Tuesday, February 22, 2022, at the CDD premises in Accra, was an incumbency advantage.

They, therefore, condemned the practice making reference to the 1992 constitution of Ghana.

Presenting the research findings, the D&D Fellow, CDD-Ghana Assistant Professor, Department of Government, London School of Economics, Dr. George Ofosu indicated that the chiefly endorsement influences people to vote for the candidate that has been endorsed if the chief is so much trusted by the followers swayed by the endorsement.

He observed that those swayed by the endorsement believed that the chief must have much information about the candidate for which reason he could risk his credibility to endorse and that on his own he said was a great influencer.

Additionally, the followers would also believe that their traditional leader could not make a mistake on issues of choices making.

The research as presented by Dr. George Ofosu further exposes potential effects on the chiefs'  roles as community mediators and mobilizers as a result of the endorsements.