The Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA),\u00a0Jean Mensah, has expressed disappointment in what she described as unfair\u00a0backlash from some political parties over their presidential debate series.<\/p>\n
The IEA has come under intense fire\u00a0from some\u00a0major\u00a0political parties ahead of the November elections, for what they describe as disrespectful and\u00a0unfair\u00a0arrangements adopted for this year\u2019s presidential debates.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”lhwTpBw0L51fPlZ7QU5K83NsJjOS00Mf”]Aside the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which\u00a0is yet to declare its stance on the new proposals by the IEA, which includes an intent\u00a0for a separate debate\u00a0between\u00a0the flagbearers of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), other parties have chided the IEA for not consulting them on these new arrangements.<\/p>\n
The Flagbearer of the People\u2019s Progressive Party (PPP), Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, has also\u00a0threatened to boycott the IEA\u2019s presidential debate if it goes\u00a0ahead with its decision to hold a separate\u00a0debate for the flagbererers of the NDC and the NPP, describing it as discriminatory.<\/p>\n
IEA more inclusive this year<\/strong><\/p>\n But Mrs. Mensah, said her outfit was being more inclusive than it has ever been, because it was for the first time including parties without parliamentary representation.<\/p>\n Speaking on Eyewitness News<\/strong>, the IEA Director said, \u201cWe mentioned during the launch that we would bring on board a number of the non-parliamentary parties so I don\u2019t believe that this is discriminatory at all.\u201d<\/p>\n She however noted that the IEA was not surprised by this criticism because every year, they attracted backlash for their handling of the debates series adding that the NDC \u201cbastardized\u201d their platform in 2012.<\/p>\n All \u00a0parties stand to benefit from the IEA platform<\/strong><\/p>\n Mrs. Mensah is of the view that the political parties have benefited immensely from the debate series and yet turn around to castigate them when it suits them.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe it is this same platform that offered them the opportunity to showcase their candidate in the best possible light. The platform we have is a credible and independent platform that helps to portray every candidate who comes onto it\u00a0in the best possible light.\u201d<\/p>\n She cited the NDC who she felt were able to effectively showcase their candidate on their platform ahead of the last two elections.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unfortunate that once again, we hear some of the members of the NDC criticizing this platform that they have utilized over again and has\u00a0helped them to ascend to the high office of the presidency.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Ndoum never complained when he was with the CPP<\/strong><\/p>\n Mrs. Mensah also responded to Dr. Nduom’s accusations of discrimination against the IEA saying, the fact that his PPP would be partaking in the debates defeated his argument.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is unfortunate that he cites discrimination. As I indicated, we will be bringing in some of the smaller parties. We recognized the performance of the PPP in the last election we were looking for a way to rope them in.\u201d<\/p>\n She also reminded Dr. Nduom that he had participated in the debates as the flagbearer of the Convention People\u2019s party in 2008, but he raised no issues with the IEAs handling of the arrangements\u00a0at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe engaged him extensively as well with his campaign team. Never did he raise any issue about discrimination. I believe that as a senior statesman and a respected Ghanaian at the time, if he had made any indication that our platform was discriminatory and he drew our attention to the fact that we need to bring on non-parliamentary parties, things would have been different. But he benefited from it, participated fully and he never complained.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Executive Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA),\u00a0Jean Mensah, has expressed disappointment in what she described as unfair\u00a0backlash from some political parties over their presidential debate series. The IEA has come under intense fire\u00a0from some\u00a0major\u00a0political parties ahead of the November elections, for what they describe as disrespectful and\u00a0unfair\u00a0arrangements adopted for this year\u2019s presidential […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2647,2648,10,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n