The Minority in Parliament has accused the Majority members and government of “running away” from laying the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill in Parliament for first reading.
In the previous government, the bill was passed and gone through all the necessary stages awaiting Presidential assent but never happened.
It was reintroduced in Parliament after the House resumed from recess and was advertised on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 to be considered for business on Wednesday, October 22. It was expected to have met its first reading.
However, despite it being advertised the Bill was not found on the Order Paper for Wednesday, October 22, 2025 when the House was ready to take the first reading.
Explaining the development on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga said there was no need to re-lay the bill since it had already been passed by the previous Parliament and sent to the Presidency for assent.
“We indicated that we thought the bills had been passed by this house already and had been sent to the presidency for assent. And so, we didn’t see the need to reconsider a bill that has already been passed by this house, waiting for presidential assent,” he told the House.
Ayariga noted that unless the constitutional procedure for returning a bill to Parliament is instituted by the President, the House has no business debating it again.
“Unless the constitutional procedure for returning the bill to us is complied with by the President for us to reconsider and then use our two-thirds majority to approve the bill, even if the presidency had some issues with it, there’s no need to relist it,” he explained.
According to the Majority Leader, the Speaker subsequently instructed the Clerk of Parliament to reconsider his action, which led to the removal of the bill from the Order Paper.
But this development has stirred a scathing criticism from the Minority in Parliament.
Addressing the media in Parliament, Assin South MP, John Ntim Fordjour stated that the Majority side of the House has “conspicuously” and “nicodemously” removed the Bill from the Order Paper.
“All these took place before we went on recess. Indeed, Parliament through the appropriate channels submitted a bill for gazetting. It has gone through gazetting, it has matured and has been duly advertised yesterday, October 21, 2025 for first reading for consequential referral to the Committee of Parliamentary and Legal Affairs for the subsequent process to be undertaken for the bill to be passed in line with the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians.
“Today, we came to Parliament only to see that NDC members of Parliament and their leadership have in a very conspicuous and rather nicodemous manner removed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill which was advertised yesterday.
“We are asking the Majority and NDC government where is the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill which had gone through all the processes and approved,” he said.
The Minority demanded that the bill be re-lay, insisting that an Order Paper Addendum must be raised for a re-introduction of the Bill.
“This goes clearly to indicate that there seems to be a clear attempt by NDC government to run away from this bill and we are asking the question why are they running away from this bill?
“A bill that they thought was important yesterday must be important today…We are demanding that that bill must be reintroduced today, an addendum must be raised for it to be brought back. We will not allow NDC government to run away from the bill,” he stressed.
The Minority insisted that it cannot be true the claim by the Majority Leader that the Speaker of Parliament is not aware of the bill being advertised for first reading.
“We’re disappointed in the NDC for attempting to run away from the Bill. We’re surprised the Majority Leader says Speaker is not aware of it. That cannot be true,” he added.
