Vice President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has once again thrown a challenge to the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to engage in a presidential debate.

According to him, John Mahama's refusal to engage in debate confirms that, the former president was running away and was not confident in his policies since his track record during his time as president was nothing to write home about.

Addressing supporters in Dansoman on August 27, he said presidential debates were a common practice in many advanced democracies hence, he did not understand why Mr Mahama had consistently declined the invite.

"The former President knows he cannot compete because, in every sector of the economy, the records show that we have performed far better than him.

"That's why I challenged him that if he believes, he performed better in any sector, he should come for an open debate. But he is afraid so he is running away from a debate."

"He won't come for the debate because he knows his bad record will be exposed. If he comes for the debate, I will show him something," Dr Bawumia said.

Highlighting the bad records of Mahama during his tenure as President, the NPP flagbearer reminded the supporters how the nation endured 'dumsor' under Mr Mahama's administration, and how his opponent was unable to supply chalk to basic schools.

He also recounted the many times the NDC flagbearer had opposed Free Senior High School and how he cancelled teacher and nursing trainee allowances, among many others.

"We have not forgotten all these bad records... We are moving forward. We are making progress with digitalisation. As President, he could not provide chalk to schools, but we have provided laptops to senior high students. This is the progress the country has made and we want to move forward and make it even better," Dr Bawumia added.