It appears Communication Minister Dr Edward Omane Boamah is the one blocking President Mahama’s participation in the Institute of Economic Affairs’ (IEA) presidential debates.
At least, that’s the impression created by the Executive Director of the IEA, Jean Mensah.
In an exclusive Citi News interview, Mrs Mensah told Umaru Sanda Amadu that the Communication Minister failed to execute a Presidential directive to arrange for the debate.
According to her, Omane Boamah has failed to open discussions with the IEA despite a clear directive contained in a letter written by the President’s Secretary.
“…Although we haven’t received a firm confirmation from the President’s office we’ve received letters from his office asking us to start discussing modalities with his team. They want us to start discussions. The letters were signed by the Secretary to the President asking us to start discussions with the Minister of Communications.”
She explained that several efforts to get the Minister to begin the process have been futile.
“…we’ve tried but it’s not been possible and I take it that he’s been busy but we are still working on it. We’ve initiated some discussions with the party at the party level and we believe that those discussions would be successful,” she added.
Mahama, NDC officially boycott IEA debates
The governing National Democratic Congress in June 2016 directed all of its candidates [Presidential and Parliamentary] not to participate in any debate organized by the IEA ahead of the November polls.
A statement signed by the party’s General Secretary, Johnson Aseidu Nketiah stated that the decision was taken by the NDC’s Functional Executive Committee.
“The National Democratic Congress (NDC), has, at its Functional Executive Committee (FEC), Meeting on Tuesday, June 21, 2016, decided not to participate in any debate to be organized by the Institute Of Economic Affairs (IEA), as far as it is related to the 2016 General Election.”
NDC accuses IEA of lack of consultation
The NDC took the decision because it has not been happy with the IEA’s decision to hold a separate debate for flagbearers for the two leading political parties, NPP and NDC as well as what they term as IEAs lack of consultation ahead of its debates.
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