Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has disclosed that the delay in the passage of the affirmative action bill is due to constant review of the bill. According to him, the legislature is also responsible for the delay in not prioritising its passage after submission.
He argued that, successive government usually go through the motions of considering the bill but it never gets passed.
Speaking at a consultative forum, the Speaker of Parliament guaranteed the passage of the bill under his leadership.
“The quota system is the key; I’m [an] unrepentant supporter of the quota system. I’ve always fought for it and I’ll continue to fight for it. The way we are going, if we don’t relook at these issues and we depend on some misunderstanding of what democracy means; we will never get there. That is why for me, Ghana’s parliament, we’re looking forward seriously to the passage of the Affirmative Action bill, which aims at offering women fifty percent quota. I hope you will support this.
“With all these early best practices and legal imperatives, how come that Ghana has since 1998; when the guidelines for the affirmative action bill were passed by cabinet, still not passed a law? This has largely been attributed to the low commitment on the part of some stakeholders; including parliament towards pushing for the passage of the bill into law”.
Passage of Affirmative bill
Commenting on the bill, Honorable Bagbin revealed that its passage will place the country among other countries with higher women representation. Recounting the genesis of the bill, he explained that the country is well capable of passing it into law.
“The Ghana parliament has the will; we have the capacity to pass the law in good time. Afterall, Ghana was the first independent African country to introduce the quota system for women in parliament. In 1959, the Ghana parliament passed the representation of the people women members act which enabled the President to increase the number of women in parliament to ten in 1960 and we’ve all benefited from it. Why not today?”
Additionally, Honorable Bagbin explained that, a lot of factors accounts for the delay in the passage. He revealed that change in successive government and also in the priorities of the legislature has stalled the passage of the bill.
“The story has always been revision; they’re always revising the law. We are following some old British practice where legislation before parliament dies with the parliament. So, all the bills they put before us, immediately we end a four-year term, the bill also ends a four-year term. I don’t know where this is coming from. Therefore, we have to go back, I’m told, to the new government relook at it, revise and bring it back.
“You know the bureaucratic inertia; it takes a long time before it comes back to parliament. When it comes back to parliament;, because we are always cap in hand; more priority is placed on approving loans than passing bills. So, we have been in this vicious cycle for some time”.
