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I’m surprised at immaturity of the parties- IEA Boss

Political parties, specifically the NDC and the parties without representation in parliament were up in arms over the arrangements  in preparation to this year’s debate.

 

For the NDC, they were not particularly happy about the lack of prior information about the IEA’s decision to pitch President John Dramani Mahama with NPP candidate Nana Akuffo Addo, whereas the PPP’s Dr. Paa Kwasi Nduom, and APC’s Alhassan Ayariga were unhappy about the debate being restricted to only parties with representation in parliament.

However, addressing the issue on Thursday, Jean Mensah said she expected more of the political parties given the fact that nothing has really changed about how the debates have been organized over the years.

“ I did not expect this level of immaturity actually, so I was surprised by the reaction of our political parties. There is nothing fundamentally different from what we did in 2000 and 2008.”

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Jean Mensah explained why the introduction of a new segment for the leaders of the two major parties. She said

“We had to introduce the new segment involving the NPP and NDC candidates after reviewing appeals by members of the general public for us to do so after the last debate in 2012. I expected that we have matured over the years, and I am surprised by the reactions.”

Addressing the qualms of Dr. Paa Kwasi Nduom about the IEA seeming discrimination against parties without representation in parliament, the director of the IEA said,

“ I agree with some of the arguments of Dr. Paa Kwasi Nduom, however, I believe we are also entitled to set a criteria for our debate. We cannot have a debate for all presidential candidates in an election if let’s say 60 people are contesting for the presidency”, she said.

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