The Dynamics and Complexities of Voter Choices in Ghana: A Perspective of Most Populous Swing and Stronghold Constituencies

What is it about?

The study explored the long or short term factors (Dassonneville, 2016), factors that determine electoral choices in Ghana’s most populous swing and stronghold constituencies using the psychological and rational choice theories of voting behaviour. The study was necessitated by the need to contribute to the geographical gap in the literature on the extent to which the long or short term determinants of voting behaviour influence electoral outcome in swing and stronghold constituencies in Ghana. The study concluded that the long-term factors, such as party unity and ideology, were a critical determining factor of voter choices in elections in the swing constituency. However, race and gender did not play much determining role to be significantly attributed to the voting pattern in swing and stronghold constituencies. On the other hand, short-term factors such as convincing manifestos/campaign messages and ‘‘liking for the personality/candidate’’ (in that order) were the factors that influenced voter choices in the swing constituency.

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