The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) must render an apology to Ghanaians on the conduct of the ongoing evening encounters with political parties.

The governing party has abstained from the encounters over concerns that the IEA failed to do due consultation before announcing dates for the programme.

General Secretary of the governing NDC, Johnson Asiedu Nketia says the IEA is pitching itself as an autonomous body with official command over political parties.

“It is public show of disrespect to engage only the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) alone in the debates in the first place excluding other Political Parties," General Mosquito as he is affectionately called told Ultimate FM.

He added: "Civil society organisations including other political parties came out to challenge the basis upon which they were selecting NDC and NPP alone for the debate, and we felt that in solidarity with the other political parties we should call IEA to go back to the drawing board and do what is right, but before they do that they must issue a public apology and tell Ghanaians and the political parties that they did the wrong thing and that they ought not to be challenging us and defending a decision they have taken without informing us.”

The IEA encounters and debates have become a regular affair during electioneering years and the People's National Convention has kicked off the 2016 evening encounters.