The immediate past Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has indicated that the letter from the Presidency asking Parliament not to transmit the Bill on Human Sexual Rights and Family Values to President Akufo-Addo for assent poses a threat to Ghana’s democratic principles, reflecting President Akufo-Addo’s desire to exert control over other branches of government.
“I am unable to sleep because this is a monumental threat to Ghana’s democracy and a monumental threat to Parliament as an institution. By Article 93, we are clothed with legislative authority and legislative mandate,” he stated while speaking to journalists on the issue on Tuesday, March 19, 2024.
On March 18, 2024, a letter from the Jubilee House advised parliament to halt any attempts at submitting the anti-LGBTQ bill that was passed last month to the President for signing until pending legal challenges are resolved, a letter from Jubilee House has said.
The Secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, said it is “improper” for the legislative body to “transmit the Bill to the President and equally improper for this Office to receive the Bill until the Supreme Court determines the matter raised in the suits.”
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Reacting to the development, Haruna Iddrisu, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tamale South, urged Ghanaians to rally to prevent the President from overstepping his mandate.
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“This letter only reflects President Akufo-Addo’s quest for predominance over other organs of state and that is unacceptable and that must be fought by all persons who love democracy and who cherish the principles and values of the 1992 Constitution,” he said.
He explained that “the framers of our Constitution endowed Ghana with a separation of powers, the executive, the legislature, the judiciary, and a division of powers.
“It endowed us that Parliament shall be responsible for making laws and what powers does the president’s secretary have in writing to the Clerk of Parliament and not the president himself in writing directly to the Speaker of Parliament as is required by our standing order so that officially this can be read as communication from the president? So ideally, this paper means nothing and must be ignored by the clerk,” Haruna Iddrisu stated.
