(Bloomberg) -- Ghana’s vice president backed plans to introduce draconian anti-LGBTQ laws, courting conservative voters in his bid to become the West African nation’s next president.
Mahamudu Bawumiasaid his assent to a bill passed by lawmakers earlier this year “would be automatic,” provided the Supreme Court finds the draft legislation is constitutional. Ghanaian citizens have challenged the legality of the proposed law that calls for anyone who identifies as LGBTQ to be jailed for as many as three years.
Addressing the anti-LGBTQ bill at a conference Sunday in the capital, Accra, Bawumia exclaimed a phrase in his native Hausa language that translates as “We won’t agree!” The comment drew cheers from some members of the audience.
Bawumia and his closest rival, John Mahama, are in a tight race for the presidency three months before elections on Dec. 7. While both candidates have made anti-LGBTQ comments in the past, they’ve previously stopped short of saying whether they back the bill.
“Bawumia is fueling Ghanaian sentiment against the LGBTQ community to amass support,” Alex Kofi Donkor, the director of activist group LGBT+ Rights Ghana, said by phone. The fate of LGBTQ lives “has become a scapegoat for political advancement.”
Bawumia is a member of Ghana’s Muslim minority, while Mahama hails from the Christian majority. Religious leaders from both groups have voiced their condemnation of sexual and gender minorities in recent years.
Ghana’s Finance Ministry warned in March that the bill may jeopardize $3.8 billion of World Bank funding over the next six years, if it becomes law. It may also derail a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout and hamper the country’s efforts to restructure $20 billion of external debt, the ministry said at the time.
Investors in Ghanaian eurobonds in June reached an accord to forego more than a third of the principal amount they are owed by the government, while also agreeing softer repayment terms as part of a debt-restructuring exercise.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has refused to receive the bill until the Supreme Court rules on its constitutionality. The incumbent, whose second and final term ends in January, hasn’t said what he’d do if the bill were deemed lawful by the nation’s highest court while he’s still in office.
Presidential assent is the final step required for the anti-LGBTQ bill to become law. The president may also reject the bill or transfer it to the Council of State for further advice after receiving it.
The LGBTQ issue is an outlier issue in Bawumia’s election campaign, which has mainly focused on the economy at a time when Ghana faces slowing economic growth and a cost-of-living crisis spurred by annual inflation that continues to hover at more than 20%.
(Updates with comments from LGBTQ activist in fifth paragraph)
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