Government's arrogance comes under scrutiny

THE recently concluded Local Government (LG) election produced a surprising verdict with the ruling NPP alliance suffering an unexpected dip in its popularity.

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The NPP's vote share declined to almost 43% from the impressive 62% of votes they obtained at the last November Parliamentary election. Such a substantial decline in the NPP's vote base within just five months after obtaining a two-third majority in the legislature would have surprised everybody.

Nevertheless, it would be imprudent to surmise that the NPP has lost its way completely. As we pointed out in one of the previous columns, compared to the national-level elections, the voter turnout is generally low for polls held to elect representatives for local councils and provincial councils. There is a tendency among independent-minded, moderate voters to ignore non-national polls. The enthusiasm of the social media-focused youth towards minor polls too is pretty low, which results in a lower voter turnout. The previous LG election recorded an 80% voter turnout which was a historical high. At the 2011 Local Council Election, the turnout was about 65%. The election during last week witnessed a turnout of 62%, and it would have certainly had a bearing on the outcome.