Ghana’s Parliament voted on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to rescind its May 29 passage of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, the measure widely called the anti-LGBTQ bill.
Majority Leader James Agalga moved the motion, the Ghana News Agency reported, and Speaker Alban Bagbin put it to a vote, according to GBC. “Honourable members, the Ayes have it,” Bagbin said, MyJoyOnline reported.
“The House has accordingly rescinded its earlier decision, which was taken on Friday, 29th May 2026,” Bagbin said, according to GBC. The bill goes back for corrections and another third reading.
The bill had not reached President John Mahama after the May vote, as Gayety reported when Parliament reconvened on Nov. 3. It is not law. Parliament must reconsider it and vote again before sending it for presidential review.
Why Ghana’s Drafters Couldn’t Fix the Errors
Parliament’s Legislation Drafting Department checked the final text against what MPs had decided on the floor after the May passage and found inconsistencies, MyJoyOnline and GBC reported.
“If they were just minor errors, the draft people could put them right,” Bagbin told the House. Decisions were different, he said. The drafters couldn’t tamper with those, and only the House could change them.
“It has to be brought back for the House to do the proper thing,” Bagbin said.
Bagbin had raised a separate concern on June 1, after the May vote. “And in fact, when it was passed on Friday, it was even a surprise to me,” he said then. Bagbin had been away on official assignments, GBC reported, and expected MPs only to begin considering the bill that day.
“It was Friday, and members wanted to go home early to their constituencies,” he added, according to MyJoyOnline. He said he knew they wouldn’t have finished the bill that day.
Agalga Says the Penalty Calculations Need Fixing
On Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, Nov. 4, Agalga previewed the move and singled out the sentencing math, MyJoyOnline reported. “For instance, how to compute penalty units was completely done in error, in some cases,” he said.
He said the bill’s penalties didn’t line up with existing law. “The penal provisions are not aligned. They are not aligned properly,” Agalga said.
He described the fixes as technical. “So, not much of substance would change,” he said.
He also pushed back on talk that Mahama had cooled on the bill. “Contrary to all the wild speculations that the President has shifted goalposts and all that. No, he hasn’t,” Agalga said.
What the May 29 Ghana Anti-LGBTQ Bill Would Do
MPs approved the bill by voice vote on May 29, Reuters reported at the time. First Deputy Speaker Bernard Ahiafor announced the result.
The May text kept Ghana’s existing penalty of up to three years in prison for same-sex sexual acts, according to Reuters. It added three to five years for the “funding, sponsorship or promotion” of LGBTQ acts. It also created a “duty to report,” with up to three years in prison for failing to do so, and made offenses under the bill extraditable.
Ahead of the May vote, the Minority accused the Majority of slipping in an exemption for certain professionals, individuals and institutions that the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs never considered, MyJoyOnline reported. Bagbin first said in October that the bill would get a second consideration, Gayety reported.
Then-President Nana Akufo-Addo never signed an earlier version, passed in 2024, as it faced court challenges, Reuters reported.
Agalga Predicts November for Mahama, With No Third Reading Date Set
Asked on Joy News whether the corrected bill would reach Mahama in November, Agalga gave a one-word answer: “Absolutely.” A check of available reporting on Friday, Nov. 13, found no confirmed new vote or presidential assent.
Before that vote, MPs take the bill through a second consideration stage, where they can propose deletions, amendments or additions, according to the Ghana News Agency.
