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Several reasons have been adduced for the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC's) decision to back out of a debate which was organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) to solicit the ruling party's views on whether there is a need for a new voters’ register.

Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Koku Anyidoho, has come out to offer the main reason behind the NDC's decision to boycott the debate at the last hour.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Midday News bulletin on Tuesday, Mr. Anyidoho noted that after studying the platform the IEA provided for political parties to debate for or against a new voter’s register, the NDC decided to stay out to avoid any ‘intellectual injury’.

The NDC had earlier on given the IEA an assurance that it would be participating in their debate on the voters’ register.

But hours to the debate, the ruling party made a controversial u-turn and Mr. Anyidoho claims the party considers the IEA’s platform as one that is unfriendly and could injure them if they decide to be a participant.

“The issue of the voters’ register is no child’s play and all political parties in Ghana have agreed to allow the Electoral Commission (EC) to work on it,” he said.

He reiterated the point about the IEA trying to usurp the powers of the EC by noting that “the EC has said they would allow all parties to come and argue out their case on 29th and 30th October then all of a sudden, the IEA organizes an event to get us debate about the same matter”.

“We in the NDC believe Ghanaians would understand us better when we speak on the EC’s platform compared to the IEA’s,” he added.