Highlights: Ghana: parliamentary and executive opposition at odds over anti-LGBTQ law. Is Ghana heading towards an institutional crisis? Minority MPs announced on Thursday March 21 that they wanted to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Nana Akufo-Addo. At issue: the Ghanaian president has still not commented on the promulgation, or not, of the so-called anti- LGBTQ law, says Victor Cariou. This threat of dismissal is only one element among others in a broader blockage that is coming, he says.

Is Ghana heading towards an institutional crisis? Minority MPs announced on Thursday March 21 that they wanted to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Nana Akufo-Addo. In question…

Ghana: parliamentary and executive opposition at odds over anti-LGBTQ law

Is Ghana heading towards an institutional crisis? Minority MPs announced on Thursday March 21 that they wanted to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Nana Akufo-Addo. At issue: the Ghanaian president has still not commented on the promulgation, or not, of the so-called anti-LGBTQ law. This threat of dismissal is only one element among others in a broader blockage that is coming.

The Speaker of the Ghanaian Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, speaks in Parliament in Accra, Wednesday February 28, 2024, during the adoption of a highly controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill. © Misper Apawu / AP

By: RFI Follow

With our correspondent in Accra,

Victor Cariou

“

Parliament will not approve the new members of the government until the president has rendered his decision on the anti-LGBTQ law

”: this is, in essence, what Alban Bagbin, speaker of Parliament, declared on Wednesday evening.

A strong response to the letter from the secretary of the President of the Republic, addressed to Parliament on Monday. In it, he asks deputies not to transmit the text to the head of state for promulgation, as long as the Supreme Court has not delivered its opinion.

It was enough to trigger the anger of supporters of the law. They denounce a scandalous abuse of power on the part of the president, as well as an avoidance of his responsibilities.

As a reminder,

this bill adopted

by a broad consensus in Parliament on February 28, raised serious concerns, particularly at the United Nations, about the rights of the LGBTQ community in Ghana - in the event of promulgation of the text, it, like any affiliated persons, would risk three to five years in prison.

Fears that President Nana Akufo-Addo tried to calm at the beginning of the month. His Minister of Finance, for his part, pointed out the risks that the promulgation of such a law could generate, the first of which being

the loss of 3.8 billion dollars

of funds promised by the World Bank.

Also read “A homophobic legal war”: in Africa, many countries are further tightening their anti-LGBT+ legislation

Ghana: parliamentary and executive opposition at odds over anti-LGBTQ law

Ghana: parliamentary and executive opposition at odds over anti-LGBTQ law

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