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0 Minority Caucus exposes glaring contradiction in ruling party’s position on flagship anti-LGBTQ+ legislation
There is a particular kind of political hypocrisy that transcends ordinary spin and enters the territory of outright public deception. The NPP Minority Caucus in Parliament believes the National Democratic Congress has crossed that line, and it is not holding back in saying so.
In a formal statement released on June 4, 2026, the Minority Caucus catalogued in clinical detail what it describes as the NDC’s extraordinary reversal on the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill — a reversal that spans from furious demands for presidential assent in 2024 to a quiet rewriting of the same legislation in 2026.
“It is therefore both strange and hypocritical for the NDC to have demanded immediate presidential assent to the 2024 Bill, only to return to Parliament and substantially rewrite that same Bill upon assuming office,” the statement said.
The timeline is striking. In 2024, as the Bill sat awaiting assent from then-President Akufo-Addo, the NDC mounted a sustained public campaign condemning the delay. They called it a moral failure, accused the NPP of sympathising with LGBTQ+ interests, and mobilised religious leaders to pile pressure on the presidency. The NDC used the issue to win votes, explicitly arguing that only an NDC government would ensure the Bill became law.
Now in government, the same NDC has presided over a Parliament that has introduced 31 amendments to the very Bill they once swore to protect. The Minority says this sequence of events is not a matter of interpretation, it is documented in Hansard and the public record.
The NPP’s position is that the NDC’s conduct amounts to a systematic exploitation of Ghanaian public sentiment on a matter of deep cultural and religious significance, followed by a quiet retreat once electoral power had been secured.
The Minority Caucus is demanding that the 2024 Bill, in its original form, be restored and transmitted for presidential assent. Anything less, they say, will confirm what the NPP has long argued: that on this matter, the NDC cannot be trusted.
The Minority Caucus in Parliament wishes to reiterate, with clarity, the New Patriotic Party’s position on the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill (LGBTQ+ Bill) in light of recent public commentary surrounding the matter. The position of the NPP, as expressed at the Minority Caucus press conference of 1st June, 2026 and articulated on the floor of Parliament, remains unchanged and restated below: 1. The NPP unequivocally rejects the normalisation, promotion or protection of LGBTQ+ values and practices within Ghanaian society. This position is consistent with the views of the people we are in politics to serve, the Ghanaian people. 2. In 2024, what was clear to the country was that both sides of the 8th Parliament, convinced that the Bill reflected the cultural, religious and moral convictions of the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians, after the debate, where issues were raised and discussed, passed it, unanimously. 3. Notably, it was the NDC, then in opposition, which resisted any attempts to amend any of its provisions. The NDC further exploited the delay in presidential assent in 2024, notwithstanding It was Rt. Hon. Alban S.K. Bagbin, serving as Speaker of the 8th Parliament, who led the charge for the passage of the Bill without compromise or dilution. 4. The NDC further demonstrated that conviction through their strong and vocal public disapproval of the Presidency’s refusal to receive the 2024 anti-LGBTQ+ Bill for assent, a refusal premised on the explanation that receipt would prejudice pending court cases challenging the constitutionality of the Bill and the processes that heralded its passage. The NDC routinely dismissed concerns regarding the constitutionality or legality of aspects of the Bill as evidence of sympathy for LGBTQ+ causes, and weaponised the matter to malign the NPP. 5. The NPP has always been consistent in its support of our society’s family values and against the normalisation of LGBTQ+. Yet, the NDC disregarded all that to falsely portray the NPP as supportive of LGBTQ+ interests, mobilised religious leaders and urged Ghanaians to vote against the NPP in order to give the Bill what they claimed was its only realistic chance of becoming law. 6. Having secured power on the strength of that position, Ghanaians are entitled to expect the John Mahama administration to honour, without equivocation, the commitments and representations made regarding the 2024 Bill that the 8th Parliament passed. 7. Yet, upon assuming office, the NDC has taken a markedly different position. The reintroduced Private Members Bill has undergone thirty-one (31) amendments, fundamentally altering provisions the NDC MPs were earlier against amending. The NPP holds that this heavily amended Bill represents a clear departure from the NDC’s 2024 position and a fundamental breach of faith with the Ghanaian people. 8. It is, therefore, both strange and hypocritical for the NDC to have demanded immediate presidential assent to the 2024 Bill, only to return to Parliament and substantially rewrite that same Bill upon assuming office. These extensive amendments betray principle, expose the political insincerity of the NDC’s earlier posture, and affirms that the NDC cannot be trusted. 9. Even though he did not personally preside the day this Parliament passed by the Bill, it is that same Rt. Hon. Alban S. K. Bagbin who, having been returned as Speaker of the 9th Parliament, now heads the Parliament that has passed a Bill bearing 31 amendments to the very legislation he once championed and protected. The NDC’s unanimous vote in support of the 2024 Bill was therefore not an act of goodwill but a calculated political statement of convenience and deceit. 10. Matters have been further complicated by conflicting positions within the ruling party itself. After the amended Bill was passed, President Mahama publicly suggested that the House may have lacked the requisite quorum. The Speaker has called for the Bill to be returned to the floor for a fresh Consideration Stage, while the Majority Leader has publicly disagreed. The NPP believes these contradictions reflect an attempt to frustrate the Bill’s enactment, while managing the political consequences of abandoning a position that the NDC once vigorously championed. 11. We note also that President John Dramani Mahama, in remarks made during his public engagement at Chatham House in London this week, appeared to suggest that his administration is in no hurry whatsoever to see the Bill become law. We have further been reliably informed that certain assurances were given by the President to the British Prime Minister at No. 10 Downing Street that the Bill remains far from becoming law. If accurate, such assurances would represent a remarkable departure from the urgency with which the NDC pursued this matter while in opposition and would further reinforce concerns regarding the Government’s consistency, credibility and commitment on the issue. The issue before the country has never been whether or not Ghanaians support the values embodied in the 2024 Bill. That is not in doubt. The real issue is whether the NDC can be trusted. It is obvious the NDC is not prepared to stand by the position it campaigned on when in opposition, defended in Parliament and presented to the Ghanaian people before assuming office. The Minority Caucus holds that the Bill passed in 2024 by the 8th Parliament which President John Dramani Mahama pledged to assent to, must be passed in its original state and transmitted for presidential assent. That is the aspiration of the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians.
