Confirming a widely held notion that a majority of Muslims are sympathetic to the ruling National Democratic Congress, whilst a majority of Christians are sympathetic to the New Patriotic Party, figures from a poll conducted by Research international has confirmed this widely held notion.

The opinion poll carried out in March and which surveyed 4,600 respondents revealed that 47.40% of Christians will vote for the NPP, but a slightly greater number of 47.80% of Christians would vote for Nana Akufo-Addo.

35.40% of Christians will vote for the ruling NDC, but quite surprisingly, the presidential candidate of the NDC who has been touted as God-fearing and humble has a total of 31.90% of Christians saying they will vote for him, a percentage difference of 3.50%. 5.40% of Christian respondents stated they would vote for both their party and their presidential candidate. A large majority of Ghanaians who are Christians can be found in all but the three northern regions.

As such the NDC as a party, which had had the three northern regions as its strong hold, together with the Volta region, since 1992, had 47.40% of Muslims stating they would vote for the party. However, President Mills, once again received a lower endorsement, 41.20% from Muslim respondents as compared to that of his party.

The NPP, seen as not so strong within the Muslim communities obtained 34.30% whilst their flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo obtained 33.60% of votes from respondents. Ever since 1992, the NPP has not won a majority of votes in either of the three northern regions, where Muslims are dominant, despite receiving massive endorsements from some Muslim communities across the country. 58.60% of respondents who stated their religion as being the traditional religion indicated their preference for the NDC, with a slightly lower number of 53.50% professing their support for President Mills.

Nana Addo performed better than the NPP with regards to “traditionalists” as he obtained 28.30% to the NPP’s 27.30%.

Respondents who were atheists or perhaps refused to disclose their religion stated that they preferred the NDC presidential candidate to the party itself, a turnaround in support for President Mills over his party, for once in this survey.

53.80% of respondents who had “no religion” stated they would vote for President Mills with 50.0% stating they would vote for the NDC. On the other hand, 42.90% and 42.60% of respondents would vote for the NPP as a party and Nana Akufo-Addo respectively.

Judging from the results of this survey, it can be concluded that the NPP enjoys massive support from a majority of Christians and the NDC on the other hand enjoys support from a majority of Muslims.