The NPP has described moves by the Mills Campaign Team for a debate between the two candidates for the presidential run-off on December 28 as "amusing and desperate".

A statement in Accra by Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, NPP National Campaign Manager, said the party is baffled by the "NDC's new found passion for such a debate and the zeal with which it is being pursued".

It noted that the NDC refused similar debates in 1992 and 1996 as well as "the October flight of the 2000 presidential candidate. After the massive rejection and its shocking defeat in the December 7 elections, the NDC and its presidential candidate are in desperate search for a lifeline".

Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, the NPP presidential candidate, is no stranger to debates since he participated in the drafting of two constitutions for the country and was on the same number of occasions elected to Parliament.

"Seeking the mandate of the people to run their lives is very serious business and not the kind of comic exercise that the Mills Campaign seeks to reduce the run-off into with these infantile calls for public debates".

Mr Kufuor's style of going directly to seek the mandate of the people compares most favourably to the "unacceptable shortcut" of the Mills Campaign. The NPP said "Mr Kufuor would not throw any lifeline to the drowning team of his opponent by being part of any exercise of deception of the people".

The statement said at the age of 32, Mr Kufuor, as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs led Ghana's delegations to the United Nations and conferences of the Non-aligned Movement and had no problem making Ghana's position on contentious issues known and understood.

It said, "December 28 is barely two weeks away and Mr Kufuor, in characteristic style, is on course. For the Mills Campaign, we wish them well in their tripod strategy of violence and threats of violence, whipping up ethnic divisions and chasing a public debate that will not happen," the NPP said.