Communication Team Member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nana Owusu Banahene has said that Ghanaians don’t need the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) projection victory for opposition NDC in the 2024 elections even though the polls are years away.

The EIU however says it expects the opposition to present a fresh face for the presidential contest despite reports that former President John Mahama will contest to lead the party again. This according to Banahene was just a move to test waters orchestrated by the ruling NPP.

“Ghanaians don’t need the EIU to tell us that the NDC will win the 2024 general election. Everyone knows that Mahama was robbed in the last election. The sitting President used Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda’s way to win the election. In parliament, we won 140 seats but the NPP used tactical means to hang four seats.

This report was orchestrated by the ruling NPP just to test waters because it doesn’t make sense for them to tell us to change Mahama for a new face. Mahama is a more popular candidate than even Nana Addo. This whole thing is an agenda to test waters,” he told Don Kwabena Prah on Happy FM’s Epa Hoa Daben.

“The next parliamentary and presidential elections are due in 2024. Under the constitutionally mandated term limits, Mr Akufo-Addo cannot run for a third term. Mr Mahama is reportedly considering whether to run again, but we expect the NDC to seek to revitalise its prospects with a fresh candidate. After two terms of the NPP government, we expect the NDC to win the 2024 presidential election and to gain a small majority in parliament,” the latest report of the firm said.

It added: “In the 2020 parliamentary election, the NPP and the NDC each won 137 seats, but in January the one independent Member of Parliament (MP) announced that he would co-operate with the NPP, giving it the 138 seats needed for an effective majority. With a razor-thin majority, the Akufo-Addo administration will require all of its MPs to vote with the party in order to push through signature policies, which is likely to necessitate deal-making to persuade MPs, which stands to obstruct immediate policy priorities, such as reducing a large fiscal overhang through expenditure cuts and tax rises”.

On the country debt situation, the EIU noted: “Economic structure risk remains CCC-rated. The current-account deficit, which is estimated to have averaged 2.8% of GDP over the past 48 months, is a drag on the score. The country is currently estimated to be in default, following a rise in principal arrears owed to external official creditors in 2018. Arrears will remain substantial, raising the perceived risk of a prolonged default among investors. Regarding the structure of the national accounts, the services sector is the largest sector of the economy, accounting for about 45% of GDP”.