Majority Leader and Member of Parliament (MP) for the Effutu constituency, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has said that portions of the LGBTQ+ bill in its current form will fail a constitutional test.
Although Mr Afenyo-Markin exercised restraints in pointing out specific clauses, he held the view that some aspects of the bill infringe on human rights, indicating that “the law [bill] in its present form has questionable constitutional issues”.
In an interview on Accra-based Citi TV, the newly-appointed majority leader stressed that members of parliament should be free to tackle the lapses within the law without emotion.
“The law as I see it and from how I see it, the law cannot stand any serious test in any constitutional court”, said the Effutu lawmaker, adding, “The law will have a serious challenge at the Supreme Court”.
Mr Afenyo-Markin continued by saying that should the new law face a constitutionality test, “it will fail; not the entire law but aspects of it will fail”.
He noted some colleague MPs have genuine concerns with the bill yet shy away from openly criticising it for fear of being misconstrued as advocates for same-sex marriages.
“The way the whole thing was introduced, it created some fear among legislators, that if I don’t support it, it means I am supporting a man to marry a man and supporting a woman to marry a woman, so I won’t touch it. But, If we pay attention to the details, we can come up with a law that will be acceptable to all.”
On February 15, the leader of the majority caucus of parliament, Afenyo-Markin, filed a motion to block the third and final reading of the bill to be passed into law.
He contended that although he is not against the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values bill, he is opposed to the provision that would lead to the imprisonment of individuals accused of engaging in or promoting LGBTQ activities.
“The essence of this motion is to afford this House the opportunity to thoroughly consider amendments that are proposed in the bill with the view of substituting community service for incarceration,” Afenyo-Markin explained.
However, the NPP MP for Effutu withdrew his proposed amendments to the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021, on Wednesday, February 21.
This followed votes in the House against two of his proposals, which appealed for the replacement of imprisonment with community service for individuals found to have engaged in LGBTQ+ activity.