Year In Review: Six major events in Parliament in 2024

The year 2024 was marked by several key events in Ghana's Parliament, influencing both governance and public discourse.

Below is an overview of six critical moments that occurred in Parliament during the year under review:

Death of John Kumah

On March 7, 2024, the Member of Parliament for Ejisu Constituency, John Ampontuah Kumah, died while being transported from Accra to Kumasi.

The MP, who was also a Deputy Minister for Finance, was reported to be battling an ailment and was being transported to Accra to be flown to Germany for medical treatment when he passed away.

The late MP, who died at 45 years old, served as the Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) until he was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Ejisu constituency in the 2020 Ghanaian general election on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).



Kumah's death in March 2024 triggered a by-election, which the main opposition NDC abstained from. The NPP’s candidate, Kwabena Boateng, secured victory in the by-election, obtaining 55.8% of the total votes cast.

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Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu resigns as Majority leader

Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Member of Parliament for Suame, formally announced his resignation as Majority Leader on Friday, February 23, 2024, during a session in Parliament.

Despite attributing the decision to personal reasons, reports indicate that he resigned amidst internal disagreements within the New Patriotic Party regarding changes to the party's front bench.

The Member of Parliament for Effutu Constituency, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, was subsequently named as his successor.

Passage of anti-LGBTQ+ Bill



On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, the Parliament of Ghana passed the Promotion of Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, widely known as the Anti-LGBT+ Bill. The bill, currently awaiting presidential assent, outlaws Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) activities and criminalizes their promotion, advocacy, and funding.

Persons caught in these acts will be subjected to a six-month to three-year jail term, with promoters and sponsors facing a three to five-year jail term.

Two suits were filed against the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, over the passage of the bill. Both suits, filed by broadcast journalist Richard Dela Sky and Dr. Amanda Odoi, a researcher at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), sought to have the court nullify the passage of the bill. According to the plaintiffs, the passage of the anti-gay bill did not follow the required constitutional procedures.

On Wednesday, December 18, 2024, the Supreme Court dismissed both petitions on the grounds that the bill had not yet become law. The seven-member Supreme Court panel, chaired by Justice Lovelace Avril Johnson, unanimously dismissed the petitions, stating that until a bill receives presidential assent, it does not constitute an enactment subject to judicial review of its constitutionality.

The presidency had earlier communicated President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s decision to abstain from taking any action on the bill until a determination by the court. The bill now requires presidential assent to come into force within seven days. However, if President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo refuses to assent to the bill, Parliament, by a two-thirds majority vote, can pass it into law.

The Office of the President has instructed the Parliament of Ghana not to attempt to transmit the anti-gay bill until the two legal actions against its passage in the Supreme Court are resolved.

The Speaker of Parliament, at a recent media engagement, ordered the Clerk of Parliament to transmit the bill to the President for him to make a decision on, while accusing the executive and the judiciary of conniving to undermine the authority of Parliament.

Speaker Bagbin’s declaration of vacant seats and the resulting legal tussle



On October 17, 2024, the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, referencing Article 97 (1)(g) of the 1992 Constitution, officially declared four parliamentary seats vacant with barely two months to the election in December.

The ruling meant that Ghana's hung parliament, which gave the governing New Patriotic Party a slight upper hand as the Majority side with the support of an Independent Member of Parliament, Andrew Amoako Asiamah, tilted towards the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

The NDC, by the decision, had 136 MPs in the house, while the NPP had 135. Prior to that, the NPP had 138, whereas the NDC had 137.

The MPs affected by the ruling were the NDC's Peter Yaw Kwakye Ackah of Amenfi Central constituency in the Western Region, Andrew Amoakoh Asiamah of Fomena in the Ashanti Region, Kojo Asante, NPP MP for Suhum in the Eastern Region, and NPP's Cynthia Morrison of Agona West constituency. However, on Tuesday, November 12, 2024, the Supreme Court of Ghana overturned Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin's declaration of four seats in the House as vacant.

The court’s judgment followed an application by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Effutu, Alexander Kwamina Afenyo-Markin, who challenged the Speaker’s declaration. Through his lawyers, the MP, who retained his position as Majority Leader, sought a proper interpretation of the provisions of the Constitution on which the Speaker based his declaration.

The Chief Justice, announcing the court’s decision, stated that the application of the Majority Leader was upheld by a 5-2 majority. She noted that two of the justices opposed the application on the grounds of jurisdiction. The ruling by the court brought to an end a tussle between the NPP and NDC Caucus on which was the Majority side, a situation which affected business in the House over the period. Speaker Bagbin on various occasions suspended the House indefinitely due to a lack of consensus between the caucuses.

Finance Minister fails to present 2025-Mini Budget



For the first time in the history of the country’s 4th Republic, the budget for the ensuing year has not been passed. The 2025 budget was not presented for approval due to the impasse in the Parliament of Ghana.

The Minister for Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, was expected to present a mini-budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which the house would pass to cover the expenditure of the public sector for three months — January, February, and March 2025 — but this did not happen.



Reports indicated that the failure of the minister to present the mini-budget, which would ensure a smooth running of the next government, was due to a tussle over the approval of tax waivers worth about $350 million being sought by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government.

The government and New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament (MPs) wanted the tax waivers approved, but National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs were totally opposed to its approval, stating that it was not in the interest of the country.

The government set the approval of the tax waivers as a precondition for the presentation of the mini-budget, but the NDC MPs did not budge. Even after threats of prosecution by Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the finance minister did not show up on Friday, December 20, 2024, before the House was adjourned to January 2, 2025.

Meanwhile, the Minority Leader has served notice that the Vice President-Elect, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, will present a budget on behalf of the new government following the inauguration of the President-Elect, John Dramani Mahama, and his vice on January 7, 2025.



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Watch some videos from the recent Parliamentary sittings below: