The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a public policy think tank, has addressed allegations of bias from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) regarding its plans to organize a Presidential Debate for this year’s General Elections.

The IEA clarified that its announcement of the debate was not intended to favor any particular party.

The IEA's decision to host the debate, especially between the candidates of the NDC and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), came shortly after NPP’s presidential candidate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, challenged NDC’s John Mahama to a debate.

In response, John Mahama's campaign team accused the IEA of acting on behalf of the NPP. However, in a press release dated July 22, 2024, and signed by Dr. Charles Mensa, Chairman of the IEA Board, the think tank emphasized that it is merely continuing its longstanding tradition of organizing such debates since 2000, and is not serving the interests of any single party.

“The IEA is on record as having initiated Presidential Debates in the country in the year 2000, and has consistently pursued this noble public-spirited function with integrity, with the exception of 2020 where no Debates were organized because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Respectfully, in our press release of 17th July 2024, the IEA did not indicate that it had engaged or informed any political party or Presidential to participate in the debates. Indeed the IEA had not engaged any Political Party or Presidential Candidate prior to it’s press release. The institute intended to follow its release with individual letters inviting them to the debates and other activities,” the release said.