The 2020 presidential elections will be particularly exceptional owing to the myriad of events leading up to December 7th. From free SHS, the Ayawaso West Wuogon disturbances, the Novel Corona pandemic, the compiling of a new voter’s register, and the death of the founder of the biggest opposition National Democratic Congress, it is expected to be a tight race. A tight race because the two political party giants are spending heavily to reach eyeballs online.
Officially, campaigning is on hold to honor and respect ex-president JJ Rawlings but speedily gaining momentum online. The top political parties are not observing the campaigning break online.
Political parties have used online portals to reach their respective audience with spending increasing year upon year. Election day is a few days away and we will be taking a look at the top political party spend online. The online spending should also reflect their budget for radio TV, billboards, and print.
As of today, 23 days to elections, the governing New Patriotic Party has spent since August 2020 a total of $16,517 on Facebook and Instagram ads. The last 7 days Nov 6 – Nov 12, 2020 however saw a jump in the average spend with a total of $4,382 for just a week.
The opposition National Democratic Congress has spent since August 2020 a total of $21,666 on Facebook and Instagram ads. The last 7 days Nov 6 – Nov 12, 2020 has also seen a jump with $14,621 spent.
The opposition NDC looks to be investing more in their online presence. As to whether this will pay off, we’ll let the voters decide.
The top ads projected by the ruling NPP has focussed on promoting the offering of free SHS and the 4More4Nana catchphrase.
The NDC has banked on job creation, free primary health, and an attack on duplicate ministries as it leads its most funded ads online.
The ads published by both parties have deep audience reach in Greater Accra, Ashanti Region, Northern Region, and the Western Region
Leading these ads require persons with an understanding of how the online space works. For the NDC, the managers responsible for the payment is Stanislav Xoese Kwasi Dogbe and John Dramani Mahama. For the NPP, lawyer Kow Essuman and the New Patriotic Party (NPP: Development in Freedom) official party page managers. The distribution of payments for the past few months is as below:
We are looking to share with Ghanaians the cost of running a campaign in terms of adverts. Should you have any new data, please forward to [email protected]
Be sure to exercise your vote keeping in mind all the precautions against COVID-19