Minority Accuses NDC of “Breach of Faith” on Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill, Demands Assent to 2024 Version

The Minority Caucus in Parliament has accused the governing NDC of abandoning its previous stance on the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, calling 31 amendments to the re-introduced legislation a “fundamental breach of faith with the Ghanaian people.”

In a press release issued today and signed by Minority Leader Osahen Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, the New Patriotic Party caucus restated its position on the bill, often referred to as the anti-LGBTQ+ Bill.

The NPP says it “unequivocally rejects the normalisation, promotion or protection of LGBTQ+ values and practices within Ghanaian society,” adding that this reflects the views of the “overwhelming majority of Ghanaians.”

The statement says the 8th Parliament passed the 2024 version of the bill unanimously after debate, with both sides “convinced that the Bill reflected the cultural, religious and moral convictions” of Ghanaians.

It claims the NDC, then in opposition, “resisted any attempts to amend any of its provisions” and “exploited the delay in presidential assent in 2024.” It credits Speaker Alban S.K. Bagbin with leading the charge for passage “without compromise or dilution.”

The Minority says the NDC “strongly and vocally” disapproved of the Presidency’s refusal to receive the 2024 Bill for assent. The Presidency had cited pending court cases challenging the bill’s constitutionality.

The NPP argues the NDC “routinely dismissed concerns regarding the constitutionality or legality” of the bill as sympathy for LGBTQ+ causes and “weaponised the matter to malign the NPP” ahead of elections.

The caucus says the NDC has “taken a markedly different position” since winning power. The re-introduced Private Members Bill has undergone 31 amendments that “fundamentally alter provisions the NDC MPs were earlier against amending.”

The statement calls it “strange and hypocritical” for the NDC to have demanded immediate assent to the 2024 Bill, only to “substantially rewrite that same Bill upon assuming office.”

It notes Speaker Bagbin “did not personally preside the day this Parliament passed” the bill, but now heads the 9th Parliament that passed an amended version. The NPP says the NDC’s 2024 vote was “a calculated political statement of convenience and deceit.”