The Deputy General Secretary of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) has categorically stated that President John Dramani Mahama will not take part in the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) presidential debate.
The announcement from Mr. Koku Anyidoho comes a week after NDC National Organizer, Kofi Adams accused the IEA of failing to consult the party before deciding on the plan and date for the debate.
[contextly_sidebar id=”gsPwjxpQknlQ8g8T6b1oV05xPcxnTQgj”]Mr. Anyidoho said the party will not allow the IEA to disrespect the NDC.
“IEA cannot disrespect the National Organiser of the party, it cannot disrespect the structures of the party. Let them continue to disrespect themselves and deal with individuals but the NDC is a very disciplined structure and nobody can disrespect us…We will not participate in the IEA debate.”
Mahama won’t be in Ghana for IEA debate – Amaliba
A member of the NDC legal team, Abraham Amaliba had earlier indicated that President John Mahama will not be in the country on the date scheduled for the IEA debate.
The IEA is expected to organise the event in September but speaking on Citi FM‘s political analysis programme, The Big Issue, Amaliba said the President will be at the United Nations General Assembly meeting hence cannot participate in the debate.
“…The dates that they have even proposed, on those periods, the president will be out on a General Assembly meeting at the UN,” he said.
Political parties’ position
Various political parties have chastised the IEA for what they describe as disrespectful and unfair arrangements adopted for this year’s presidential debates.
The NDC expressed displeasure with the IEA for not consulting them before its announcement on the debate, with the party’s National Organizer, Kofi Adams, describing their actions as disrespectful.
“We did not have any consultation with the IEA and you cannot just get up and make announcements without engaging the political parties that are involved especially when you are introducing something new. At least they should have treated us with some respect. We strongly feel that we have been disrespected,” he argued.
The Chairman of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, also criticized the IEA for not consulting before proposing the new arrangements.
“The unilateralism that characterizes the way IEA takes its decisions is not healthy for our bubbling democracy. You will appreciate that these decisions were taken in the past with some other crop of executives. It will be important to tell the current executives even if they were old that these are the issues that we have come up with and we can also come out and do an evaluation of the past presidential debates before the IEA can come out.”
–
By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah