PAP Presidency: Roger Nkodo Dang backs Aichata Cisse

The immediate past President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), Rt.Hon. Roger Nkodo Dang has thrown his weight behind the candidacy of Rt. Hon. Aichata Cisse for the presidency of the continental parliament. The election of a new Bureau for the parliament is expected to take place in May 2021 in Midrand, South Adruca.

Nkodo Dang declared his stand in a statement he personally issued, a copy of which was made available to the African Parliamentary News.

Newsmen had reported that PAP may not admit the Mali delegation which Hon. Cisse is a member because the delegation consists of members of the Transitional National Council (CNT). This followed the refusal of the ECOWAS Parliament to admit Mali members into its meeting.

Mali’s parliament was dissolved after the August 2020 military coup that toppled the elected government and dissolved the parliament, replacing it with an appointed CNT.

According to Nkodo Dang, Cisse has the right to contest the position according to the Pan African Parliament’s Rules of Procedure (PAP Rules) which states that members of the Pan African Parliament can be designated by their respective National Parliaments or “any other deliberative organ of member state”.

He argues that the CNT which was designated as the legislative organ of the Mali Transitional Government, qualifies as “any other deliberative organ of member state”

“Aidara Cisse has the right to contest PAP presidency election according to our Rules, which states in Rule 8 that members of PAP can come from national Assembly or any organ who serve like Parliament, so CNT is legislative organ of Mali”

Nkodo Dang accused the Acting President of the PAP, Hon. Chief Fortune Charumbira of “wanting to create precedent” because PAP had in the past, allegedly allowed Burkina Faso and Central African Republic (CAR) who had transitional parliament.

Speaking on the implication of Mali’s proposed February 2022 parliamentary election, Nkodo Dang said:

“The Rule is clear, if Aidara is elected PAP president in May and she goes for the election in February and wins, she will came back and be sworn in as PAP member and continue her mandate”.  

He bemoaned a situation where PAP could not hold its statutory plenary in both May and October 2020 because the two remaining Bureau members (Hon. Chief Charumbira and Hon. Djamal Bouras) “stopped PAP from meeting for two years because they didn’t want the Bureau to came back”.

He alleged that the May 2021 Session will be the first session after vacancies on the Bureau such that elections have to be conducted first to fill the vacant Bureau positions.

“Having won reelection in Cameroon in February 2020 and designated back to the PAP, I am supposed to resume my seat as PAP President after being sworn in as a member of PAP to complete my tenure” he concluded.