NPP, NDC and DPP Parliamentary Candidates absent from debate

Walewale(NR), Dec. 4, GNA - Parliamentary Candidates of New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) in Walewale Constituency in Northern Region were absent from a debate organised for them. However, Parliamentary Candidates of Convention People's Party (CPP) and People's National Convention (PNC) attended the debate organised by Rural Research and Information Centre (RURIC) in collaboration with National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) and sponsored by Ibis-Ghana.

The debate scheduled to start at 8:30 am, delayed up to 11:40 am because the two candidates who honoured it did not also come on time. They were Mr Abdalla Abubakar of PNC and Mr Azaratu Iddrisu Sampa of CPP.

Mr Nabila Sulemana of NPP, Mr Mampaya Sulemana of DFP and Mr Alidu Zakariya of NDC were absent.

Mr Issahaku Bandim, West Mamprusi District Director of NCCE, said the debate was not to award marks and adjudge any candidate as the winner, but to afford them the opportunity to market their ideas to the electorate.

Despite their absence, the debate went on smoothly with Mr Abubakar of PNC and Mr Sampa of CPP, responding to questions bordering on the district assembly sub-structures, women's representation at the area, zonal and town council under the district assembly sub-structure concept.

Other issues centred on effective accountability and transparency in facilitating public participation, using public relations and complaints sub-committee, and conflicts between District Chief Executives and Members of Parliament at the district levels, in implementing policies, especially when they belonged to different political parties.

Each candidate was given 10 minutes to highlight on their Party's manifesto before the commencement of the debate. The four rounds debate provided each candidate with three minutes to address the issues.

Intermittently, supporters of the candidates and residents of Walewale who turned out in their numbers cheered up the candidates whenever they addressed problems to their satisfaction. At the end of the debate, the candidates urged their supporters not to cause mayhem before, during and after Election 2008 because if they were elected and their supporters fought and killed each other, their aims and objectives would not be achieved. Moderators of the debate were; Mr Alhassan Imoro, Director of Rural Media Network (RUMNET) based in Tamale, Mr Umar Mocktar, a Research Officer at the Institute of Local Governance, Tamale, and Mr Yakubu Alhassan, Deputy Northern Regional Director of NCCE, with Mr Barnabas Biyam of West Mamprusi NCCE, District, as the timekeeper. 04 Dec. 08