The Member of Parliament for Damongo, Samuel Abu Jinapor, has urged the Majority in Parliament to bring back the original Anti-LGBTQ Bill passed by the 8th Parliament, insisting that the legislation must remain unchanged.
“Let them bring the bill as it was, and as was passed by the 8th Parliament in the same form and shape. Don’t change it.
“Don’t water it down. What Ghanaians want is a law that promotes good sexual conduct in Ghana and prevents LGBTQ,” Jinapor said while speaking on the floor of Parliament.
His comments follow days of debate over whether the bill should be reintroduced or allowed to carry over from the previous Parliament.
On Tuesday, Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin gave a firm clarification on the matter, stating that the bill cannot proceed automatically into the current Parliament.
“The eighth Parliament is history. So are all the businesses that were pending in the eighth Parliament,” he told lawmakers.
“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.”
Bagbin’s ruling counters a stance earlier defended by the Majority Leader, who argued that the bill had already been passed and therefore did not require fresh introduction.
The Speaker also noted unresolved issues regarding presidential communication on the bill, explaining that correspondence from the presidency did not satisfy constitutional standards for assent procedures.
