The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken the lead in positive sentiments on social media according to a report by think tank, IMANI Africa.
The report indicates that negative public sentiments about the NPP significantly dropped to about 13% between February and March 2024, when IMANI analysed social media sentiments from the public about parties under its Public Understanding and Literacy for Sentiment and Election analysis (PULSE).
The NDC on the other hand has dropped in positive sentiments from 10.22% to 9.50% while the NPP had its positive mentions marginally increase to 10.71% from 10.22%.
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“Purely negative sentiment over the period decreased for both party candidates. People that spoke of NPP negatively fell by almost 13% (12.89%) from around 30.7% a month earlier to about 17.81%, which is a huge drop in negative sentiments. The NDC also had their sentiments fall albeit about a quarter of the margin of NPP’s fall. This led them to an around 18.64% negative sentiment rate from 21.86% last month,” the report said.
According to the authors of the report, several factors contributed to the positive mentions and less negativity for both parties.
For the NPP, one such factor is the launch of the One Student One Tablet Smart Schools initiative which triggered a lot of mentions.
“There was a spike in mentions due to fulfillment of Bawumia’s promise of 1 student one Tablet generating buzz on TikTok with hashtags #itispossible, #Boldsolutionsforthefuture and #Bawumia2024,” the report detailed.
Another spike in mentions for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is attributed to his engagement with traders in Sunyani, Bono Region, alongside popular hashtags #Bawumia2024 and #itispossible.
“The mentions that had the most extensive reach came from: tiktok.com (authors: officialutvghana), youtube.com (authors: Magraheb TV).”
For NDC’s candidate John Mahama, his 24hours Economy freestyle dance challenge and controversial comments by party elder Dr. Kwesi Ahwoi caused a spike in mentions in the months the analysis was conducted.
Other Contenders
For most of the other contenders in the upcoming elections, IMANI found that mentions on social media still remain negligible compared to that of candidates Bawumia and John Mahama.
But the New Force’s Nana Kwame Bediako seems to remain the most dominant in terms of social media attention among the other contenders.
“His social media following has grown massively as well as the frequency and length of engagement due to his recent listening tour and related media interviews, which puts him literally as the most visible force among the other contenders.
His main Hashtag, #thenewforce, has garnered many mentions and positive sentiments of just over 50% of all related mentions, while negative sentiment is around 15% of all mentions and comments. The depth of his reach from a small sample of handles suggests a well-coordinated and organic social media engagement,” the report noted.