The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), has urged political parties which have raised issues with the planned presidential debate series to forward their concerns to its\u00a0secretariat.<\/p>\n
The IEA gave this advice in a statement after a meeting with\u00a0the various political parties on Thursday to discuss the plan for the debates.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”xMq2yrRoNbIc7pyFSmdDwFFBU1y1UzZ3″]However, the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) boycotted<\/a><\/strong><\/span> the meeting because it feels offended by comments made by the IEA’s Executive Director, Jean Mensah, against its National Organizer, Kofi Adams.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Institute wishes to advice all stakeholders to appropriately send their legitimate concerns to the IEA Secretariat. We assure the public that these issues would be resolved amicably through dialogue,\u201d the IEA added.<\/p>\n According to the IEA, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was represented by Mr. Peter Mac Manu, Campaign Chairman of the party and Mr. John Boadu, acting General Secretary of the NPP.<\/p>\n It further added that CPP was represented by Prof Edmund Delle, Leader and National Chairman and Hajia Hamdatu Haruna, First Vice Chairperson of the CPP.<\/p>\n The IEA said they discussed modalities and arrangements for the Evening Encounters, Vice Presidential and Presidential Debates for 2016.<\/p>\n \u201cThe IEA urges all Ghanaians not to allow the minor issues surrounding the announcement of intentions to hold debates to overshadow the ideals of debate. These ideals include: \u00a0Promoting issues-based elections, educating the public on the respective policy positions of the aspirants, calming down political tension, ensuring citizen participation in the governance process; and promoting political accountability by empowering the electorate to hold leaders to promises made on debate platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n The IEA further admonished \u201call presidential aspirants to take full advantage of the debate platform to dialogue with the citizenry.\u201d<\/p>\n IEA undermining democracy with biased debates<\/strong><\/p>\n The IEA had announced that it will organise debate for flagbearers of the two main political parties and a separate ones for the rest of the parties.<\/p>\n But the decision has been criticised by the political parties who argue it\u00a0is biased<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and that they were not also consulted.<\/p>\n The IEA\u00a0has rejected accusations<\/strong><\/a><\/span> that it is discriminating against some certified political parties.<\/p>\n IEA\u2019s Executive Director, Jean Mensah, has defended the new directive saying \u201cwe have been magnanimous.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome think we are being discriminatory at them. In the first place, we are working with parties with representation in parliament and you will find that we will have a party that will have more than a hundred seats being on the same platform with parties that have one seat. I think that we\u2019ve been magnanimous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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