Ahead of this year’s Presidential and Vice-Presidential debate, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has called on stakeholders to submit questions on 12 thematic areas to its Debate Committee by Friday, September 14, 2024.
The 12 thematic areas include macroeconomic management, national development, and energy security, management of natural resources, development of agriculture, industry, and service sectors, and private sector development.
Others are governance, social sector, environmental security, leadership, judicial delivery, and foreign policy.
The IEA, in a press statement issued in Accra on Friday, and copied the Ghanaian Times, said the questions could be submitted in-person or through its email address.
The questions, the IEA explained, were important as it would allow the electorates to take ownership of the electoral process and also enable them to demand accountability of the presidential candidates even before one of them was elected as president.
Additionally, it said that the presidential debate which would be held twice on October 22, 2024 and November 19, 2024 in Accra and Kumasi respectively, and the vice-presidential debate to be held on November 5, 2024, in Accra, would ensure that the real concerns of the citizens were addressed by the candidates.
“The IEA believes that this will allow the electorates to take ownership of the electoral process and enable them to demand accountability from the candidates even before one of them is elected president. Additionally, the approach will ensure that the real concerns of the citizens are addressed by the candidates,” the statement added.
The 2024 IEA Presidential and Vice-Presidential debate, the statement said, would take the form of a policy dialogue engagement where Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates of the political parties contesting in this year’s December 7 elections would present their viewpoints, plans and programmes to the electorates.
The statement also indicated that the candidates would have the opportunity to point out the weaknesses in the policies of co-contestants and present alternatives to them.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
