Member of Parliament for Tamale South, Haruna Iddrisu says the Affirmative Action Bill currently before parliament is not in the interest of Ghanaians.

According to him, the bill in its present form focuses more on matters in other countries which may not necessarily apply to Ghana.

 Speaking at the 15th MTN Pulse Africa Transform Summit in Kumasi on Saturday, the NDC MP described the bill as a bad law which must be readdressed.

"I have seen Ghana struggle to pass an Affirmative Action Bill. I told the Minister the other time that the bill in its form and character is a bad law. Bad law.

“So sometimes you wonder if we read what we bring to parliament. Yes, Ghana needs an affirmative action law, but you are comparing Ghana to Rwanda or Uganda or Eritrea.”

“Have you gone there to see how their constitution and their laws have worked for them? In Rwanda and in Uganda there is representation of women based on appointment. Ghana, you say competitive election. The women are too shy to do competitive elections. They don’t have the money,” he stated.

His concerns follow the laying of the Affirmative Action Bill before Parliament after years of debates and anticipation.

The bill, which pushes for equitable election of males and females to Parliament and instructs the Electoral Commission to ensure political parties comply, has already suffered some setbacks weeks into the House's consideration of its provisions.

Earlier, the Tamale South MP had alleged that enacting such a law without first amending some constitutional provisions would be unlawful.

Quoting Article 94 of the constitution, he insisted that political parties cannot be forced to field female candidates in parliamentary elections.

“We are all elected by political parties to contest as Members of Parliament… how can the Electoral Commission regulate political parties that there should be parity of women?

“We should rather come and amend the constitution.… Political parties cannot say that in Ashanti, we want to dedicate more seats to women because we can likely project that they can be MPs. You can legislate. It is not a competitive election, Tamale South, Adaklu is opened whether male or female, go and run a competitive election and come to Parliament, that is what the constitution provides,” he said.

The bill also requires that media houses portray females in a positive light, another provision Mr Iddrisu says is unconstitutional as media houses and journalists are granted the freedom over their editorial policies and not subject to any control.

"The woman must merit positive reportage if she behaves positively like any other man,” he stated.