The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has ruled that the controversial Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill must be reintroduced in the current Parliament, as all pen
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has ruled that the controversial Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill must be reintroduced in the current Parliament, as all pending business from the dissolved 8th Parliament has lapsed.
His clarification comes after days of debate and confusion among lawmakers, following claims by the Majority Leader that the bill had already been passed by the previous Parliament and therefore did not require reintroduction.
Addressing the issue on the floor of Parliament, Mr. Bagbin dismissed that argument, stressing that the dissolution of the 8th Parliament rendered all unfinished business null and void.
“The eighth Parliament is history. So are all the businesses that were pending in the eighth Parliament. They all ended with the eighth Parliament and so we have a new Parliament — the ninth Parliament — and therefore what was pending there came to an end and has to be reintroduced,” he said.
The Speaker further explained that although the bill was transmitted to former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for assent, the presidency failed to comply fully with constitutional requirements after declining to sign it.
“They wrote to tell us that they would not assent to it. The only constitutional error they committed was that they didn’t give us reasons why they would not assent to it, and they did not transmit the bill back to us. They imprisoned it there,” Mr. Bagbin stated.
He noted that the 9th Parliament has now reclaimed the bill, which began as a private member’s initiative backed by traditional, religious, and civil society leaders.
“As you would recall, that’s a private member’s bill, and so members of this House took it up. It went through the whole process as detailed in our Standing Orders. But as it went through, the new government indicated that they wanted to take it as a public bill. I personally disagreed and made it known to His Excellency the President that this was an initiative of our people,” he said.
The Speaker added that he would undertake the necessary procedural steps required under the Standing Orders before the bill can be re-laid before the House.
“Our rules have given what the Speaker is expected to do, which I will do before it can be laid in the House,” he concluded.