President John Dramani Mahama has said that the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill — commonly known as the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill — faces unresolved procedural and legal questions that must be settled before he can consider assenting to it.
Speaking at a Chatham House question-and-answer session in London, Mahama identified two specific concerns: doubts over whether Parliament had quorum when it passed the bill, and alleged lapses in the legislative procedure during its approval.
“There wasn’t quorum when it was passed. That’s an issue that has come up, and then there were some procedural lapses in terms of its passage,” he said.
The President added that the Speaker of Parliament was already working to address those concerns before formally transmitting the bill to the Presidency. Once received, it would be subjected to a full legal review by the Attorney General and Presidency’s legal counsel — a process he described as standard given that the legislation originated as a private member’s bill rather than a government-sponsored one.
“The legal counsel in the Presidency and the Attorney General would sit on it and make sure that everything is in order before the president is advised to assent,” Mahama said.
Mahama acknowledged that the bill has generated exceptional public interest, citing it as evidence of how deeply Ghanaians feel about questions of family values and social policy. He stopped short of indicating which way he would lean once the legal process is concluded.
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