Ben Ephson's Book Cannot Be Taken On Its Face Value - Kwesi Jonah

Kwesi Jonah, a senior Lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana has down played the findings in Ben Ephson�s latest book, entitled, �2012 and 2016 elections�. �..Ben Ephson�s findings cannot be taken on its face value. He claims people say they vote based on personality. What does he mean by personality? If you say, this man looks nice and for that matter, I will vote for him does not mean he has a good personality,� he said on NEAT 100.9 FM. To him, the outcome of the research �cannot be taken on the face value� because his difficulty in understanding the word personality, in the context, in which the pollster used it. In the 299 page book, �2012 and 2016 elections�, Ben Ephson who is also the Managing Editor of the Dispatch Newspaper, explained some of the criteria majority of Ghanaians used in voting for a presidential candidate in the 2008 and 2012 elections. The research also revealed that 61% of voters cast their votes in the 2012 presidential elections based on the candidates person attributes while 28.4% because that candidate was the choice of a popular political party; 3.8% cast their ballot based on ethnicity and 5.2% was on regionalism. However, Mr. Jonah is of the view that more work needs to be done to explain what it really means to vote for someone based on his personality, even though, Ben Ephson maintains that personality and personal attributes are entirely different.