Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga has rejected claims that Parliament breached its procedures in passing the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, popularly known as the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, insisting that the process followed established parliamentary practice.

Responding to concerns raised about the speed with which the bill was passed, Mr Ayariga said Parliament lawfully invoked its rules to abridge time and proceed with the third reading on the same day the consideration stage was completed.

"There's nothing wrong with the process," he stated in an interview on Joy FM's Top Story on Tuesday, June 2.

This follows concerns over whether the level of bipartisan support reflected in the committee report was adequately demonstrated during proceedings on the floor.

According to Mr Ayariga, Parliament regularly uses motions to abridge time when there is a need to expedite legislative business.

"If you take the voting procedures of Friday, you will see that what we normally do, which is a motion to abridge time, was moved, admitted by the Speaker, seconded and voted on to abridge the time so that we could take the third reading the same day," he explained.

Mr Ayariga argued that the same procedure has been used to pass numerous laws over the years and that questioning the validity of the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill on that basis could cast doubt on many existing statutes.

"We have used that process to pass hundreds of legislations in this country. So if you say that if we take a bill through the consideration stage and then fail to wait for one day before we take the third reading, that bill is a nullity, you would annul so many laws in this country," he said.

The Majority Leader also accused the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) of taking contradictory positions on the bill.

According to Mr Ayariga, the same MPs who demanded the swift passage of the bill are now arguing that Parliament moved too quickly.

"The day before, when we were taking the report of the committee, the NPP Minority accused me of frustrating the passage of the bill, that I had refused to allow the bill to be taken on the floor, and that they wanted the bill passed on Thursday," he recalled.

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If Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill is invalid, many Ghana laws will be affected too – Majority Leader

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