The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has debunked media allegation that it leaked the questions for the just ended presidential debate in Accra to one of the candidates. The Democrat newspaper on Monday reported that its investigations had discovered that the local think-tank group leaked the questions to the Nana Akufo-Addo campaign team. However, Paa Kow Acquaye, a coordinator of Policy Analysis Issues at the IEA, in a sharp rebuttal told Joy FM’s Super Morning it would be unthinkable for anyone to fabricate such an allegation. “We at the institute are quite surprised and amused this morning to find out from some of the newspapers that questions were leaked and we allegedly went a step further to answer those questions for the candidate,” he noted with “shock”. He explained that after the presidential debate committee had compressed the over 212 questions submitted by over 89 civil society organisations, it met the communication directors of the various parties two weeks before the debate; “And we told them that for the Accra debate the areas would be on economy and then half on human and social security and when we go up Tamale, God willingly, it will be good governance and the other half of human and social security. That is as far as we went.” He said the IEA did not even endeavour to explain or give details of the areas or sub-questions to the communication directors that were present. Mr Acquaye emphatically spelt out the confidence the Institute had reposed in moderators and measures that were put in place to ensure the sanity of the debate that was held last week Wednesday for the four presidential candidates with representation in parliament. “It will interest you to know that till about two hours to the debate not even the moderators know the questions or the forward nature of the debate. So if you think that people of the calibre of Prof. Kwame Karikari and Cyril Acolatse or Israel Laryea or Prof Ivan Addae-Mensah will leak questions to political parties; you really would have to think again.” He also doubted if any member of the presidential debate committee headed by His Eminent Cardinal Peter Appiah Turkson would forgo their integrity to leak the questions to anybody. He said what the publication sought to do is to also belittle the knowledge and integrity of the presidential candidates who took part in the debate. When asked by the host of the programme, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, whether there were any intermediaries responsible for things like printing and packaging, Mr. Acquaye answered in the negative, “no, not at all”. The second debate for the presidential candidates -Nana Akufo-Addo representing the New Patriotic Party, Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Prof John Evans Atta Mills for the National Democratic Congress and Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, Convention People’s Party- is slated for November 12, 2008 in Tamale. Story by Isaac Essel