Anti-gay bill transmission: President’s letter to Parliament isn’t a directive – Vincent Assafuah | 3News

The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Old Tafo constituency, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has stated that President Akufo-Addo’s letter to the Clerk of Parliament asking the Clerk to cease transmitting the anti-gay bill to the president is not a directive to the legislature.

A letter from the President dated March 18 and addressed to Parliament stated, amongst other things, that the presidency is aware of two separate suits against the passed bill and therefore the Clerk of Parliament cannot, under the circumstances, submit the bill to the President for his assent.

Speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight programme on Tuesday, March 19, Vincent Assafuah said, “It is not a directive to the Parliament of Ghana which I am a part of.

The letter that came is not a directive; it is rather drawing the attention [of the Clerk to the Supreme Court suits].

He continued by saying, “The authority [of the letter] is on the basis of the preamble that His Excellency the President indicated in his letter that there has been an earlier attempt by Parliament to serve the presidency.

What that means is that there has been an intention on the part of the Clerk of Parliament to serve His Excellency the President”.

According to him, the President is “drawing the attention of the Clerk of Parliament” that, per the settled law during the pendency of an interlocutory injunction application, the status quo ought to be preserved.

Vincent Ekow Assafuah speaking on Ghana Tonight vis telephone

Moreover, the letter signed by the executive secretary to the President, Nana Bediatuo Asante, has generated varied opinions regarding the authority of the President’s secretary to issue such a letter to Parliament.

But the Old Tafo legislator disagreed, stating that “in many occasions, as far as I have been in Parliament, all letters that emanate from the presidency are signed by the secretary to the President”.

“All letters and I mean all letters that emanate, are signed by the secretary to the President; this is not an exception”, he emphasised.

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In response to why the President did not apply the same metric in the case of the Electronic Transaction Service levy (E-levy), the Old Tafo lawmaker maintained that the onus lay on the lawyers of the plaintiffs or the court to have found that the President acted contemptuously in signing the E-levy bill into law.

“In the case of the E-levy it is the duty of the lawyers who went to court by way of that application or the court itself to find anybody for contempt of court,” he said, adding, “We cannot answer for those questions”.

Meanwhile, the flagbearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, reacting to the development, noted, amongst other concerns, that “the letter is out of place”.