Anti-gay bill: Akufo-Addo’s letter to Parliament breach of constitutional rule – Dominic Ayine

Member of Parliament for Bolgatanga East, Dominic Ayine, has described President Akufo-Addo’s letter to Parliament to refrain from sending the anti-gay bill to the Presidency for his assent as unconstitutional.

Dominic Ayine argues that the president’s letter written by his secretary sought to prevent Parliament from undertaking its constitutional mandate, which must not be tolerated on any day.

Nana Bediatuo Asante, the Secretary to the President in a letter dated March 18, 2024, urged Parliament to kindly “cease and desist from transmitting the Bill to the President until the matters before the Supreme Court are resolved.”

Speaking on The Big Issue on Citi FM/Citi TV, the former deputy Attorney General said the letter breached the constitution.

“Basically, what the secretary to the president’s letter did was to order Parliament not to take actions mandated by the constitution and in fact, I think that was a breach of the constitution because, at the end of the day, what the constitution requires to be done has not been done and for me, the conduct of the president is reprehensible.”

He added that, despite many arguing that the president’s secretary writing the letter is disrespectful, it would not have made any difference if it was signed by the president himself.

“If the president had signed the letter, it wouldn’t have made anything difference. The contents of the letter are what matters, and they are reneging from complying with the constitution and that is a clear breach of the constitution because the constitution says that when the bill is passed by Parliament, it must be transmitted to the president for his assent and outlines the procedure when the president is not in a position to assent to the bill.”

“If I were the Attorney General, I would have advised the president to write to the Speaker saying that on account of the pending suits, he is unable to assent to the bill, and that would have been reason enough to comply with the constitutional requirements to state the reasons for not assenting to a bill,” he further suggested to Selorm Adonoo.

-citinewsroom