NDC to boycott IEA presidential debate

There are strong indications that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) would boycott the Presidential Debate for Election 2016 under the auspices of highly-rated policy think-tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

President John Mahama, granting interview to TV3 in Accra on Monday, appeared to have dropped the hint about what the NDC intends to do.

While inviting the New Patriotic Party (NPP) standard bearer, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, for a debate, President Mahama issued a caveat that he would only take part in this year’s presidential debate ahead of the November 7 elections depending on who is organizing the programme.

“I’m willing to debate Nana Akufo-Addo any day even if you call him today, I will put it here and start debating the issues. So I don’t have a problem with debating Nana Addo…I would have wished that you had him here so that we would debate those issues,” the president bragged.

He added, “Essentially our parties are involved in agreeing on the format of the debate and who organizes it and all that, so it’s not for me to say. I’m sure the NDC party at the appropriate time, if they are invited to a debate, would have to take a decision on whether they feel comfortable with whoever is organizing the debate.”

“Curiously, the IEA is the leading think-tank that initiated and has been organizing presidential debates since 2000; and for the president to hold that the NDC ‘would have to take a decision on whether they feel comfortable with whoever is organizing the debate,’ shows clearly that the ruling party is not going to be part of this year’s event,” observed a political analyst.

DAILY GUIDE understands that already, there are moves to float another platform for a similar presidential debate and the NDC has reportedly given its blessing for the event, possibly to be staged by the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE).

There has been no love lost between the NDC and the IEA since the former announced in May last year that it was severing ties with the institute.

NDC General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, at a news conference recently, again tagged the IEA alongside other think-tanks like IMANI Ghana, the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) and even anti-corruption body, Transparency International (TI), as appendages of the opposition NPP.

Without any evidence, the General Secretary had claimed the NPP “had manufactured their own NGOs here who create reports favourable to the narrative of the opposition party that the government is corrupt.”

In October when the IEA organized a forum on the biometric voter register, the NDC boycotted it with the excuse that the think-tank was trying to usurp the powers of the Electoral Commission (EC), a -charge which was vehemently challenged by the institute.

Strangely, a number of appointees in the current NDC government used institutions like the IEA as a springboard to become ministers of state.

Notable among them are Education Minister, Prof Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, who was a moderator at the 2012 Presidential Debate and Nana Oye Lithur who has always featured prominently in the IEA Women’s Empowerment Series.

MP for Manhyia at one point even alleged that the former University of Cape Coast Vice Chancellor leaked the 2012 Debate questions to the president and was subsequently rewarded with a ministerial portfolio.

The NDC had announced boycotting the IEA 2012 debate only to make a big u-turn after the death of President John Evans Atta Mills.