The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, says the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, also known as the anti-LGBTQ Bill, must be re-introduced in Parliament for consideration.
Mr Bagbin clarified that the re-introduction of the Bill has become necessary due to the fact that all businesses pending before the 8th Parliament ended with the term of that Parliament.
He gave the ruling in Parliament on Tuesday, during which he disclosed that such businesses included the Anti-LGBTQ Bill, which was transmitted to the Presidency but did not receive the needed assent by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Mr Bagbin also confirmed that the Bill had been reintroduced to the House.
“The Bill was actually transmitted to the former president but they wrote to us that they will not assent to it. The only constitutional error they committed was that they did not give us reasons why they will not assent to it and they did not also transmit the bill back to us. They imprisoned it there so we did not get the Bill back,” the Speaker clarified.
He further indicated that the 9th Parliament, upon resumption, took back the Bill and it went through the whole process as detailed in the Standing Orders.
Mr Bagbin said that the new government indicated the resolve to take up the Bill as a public bill when it was initiated as a private members’ bill, but he disagreed.
“I made it known to President John Dramani Mahama that this is an initiative by our people: the traditional leaders, religious leaders, civil society leaders, and Ghanaians wanted this bill passed through private members’ bill and so be it. We’ll process it as a private members’ bill,” the Speaker added.
The processes, he indicated, had been absolved; therefore, the Bill has to return to the Speaker as dictated by the rules of the House before being laid in the House, but that was not done.
Mr Bagbin said when the Bill was put on the Order Paper, he queried it and it was dropped and therefore gave an assurance of his resolve to support the passage when reintroduced to the House.
He was optimistic that the processes with regards to the passage of the Bill would go on smoothly as both the Majority and the Minority in Parliament were eager to have it passed.
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