6th District Race: Bhuiyan Calls For Candidates To Boycott Sunday's Debate

EAST COBB, GA -- Five Republican candidates are readying for a Sunday evening debate in East Cobb that is rife with controversy. There are 11 Republicans in the race to represent Georgia's 6th District in Congress -- but only five were invited to series of debates sponsored by the Georgia GOP.

While the secretive process of who will make the debates has riled several of the GOP candidates, one of them, Dr. Mohammad Ali Bhuiyan, the South Asian economist who is running for the 6th District as a Republican, is calling for a boycott of the forums.

"This format is unnecessarily restrictive, discriminatory, and entirely subjective," Ali said in a statement this week. "It is my hope that the local Republican Party will choose to be inclusive in their format and encourage the free debate process and not choose to pander to political insiders.

"Should the Republican Party not change the format I call on all those chosen to participate to boycott the event and call on the party to be inclusive," Ali said.

Meanwhile, Roswell businessman and District 6th candidate Kurt Wilson will be included in Sunday's GOP debate after calling attention to his exclusion in an online ad this week.

Wilson's campaign went to the internet with an ad that scolded the Republicans for not inviting all 11 candidates in the forums, which begin Sunday.

"In their infinite wisdom, they've decided that five of the 11 candidates should be in those debates," Wilson says in an online ad. What's interesting is they're saying that the debates are going to be determined by who's leading in the polls. But they won't tell you what polls, they won't tell you when the polls are determined ... this is outrageous," he said.

The 6th District GOP says they want candidates who are doing well in “publicly documented, credible polls,” which is pretty vague.

Read more: Here are the 18 candidates in the 6th District race

In a survey released this week, a WAGA-TV poll found that Democrat Jon Ossoff had increased his lead to 40 percent while former Republican Secretary of State Karen Handel garnered 20 percent, followed by former Johns Creek City Councilman Bob Gray with 10 percent and former state senator Judson Hill with 8 percent. The other candidates combined for 6 percent, according to WAGA.

The first in a three-series GOP debate will be Sunday at 6 p.m. at Indian Hills Country Club in East Cobb. The second one will be April 2 in Dunwoody, followed by an April 9 debate in Alpharetta.

"Admission is FREE and open to all Republicans, Independents, and Democrats interested in hearing our leading candidates’ positions on the issues," the invitation says.

Image via Youtube / Kurt For Congress