PAP Presidency: Can Hon. Aichata Cisse beat the odds?

The immediate past Second Vice President of the Pan African Parliament (PAP), Hon. Aichata Cisse is so far, the only female parliamentarian in the race for the presidency of the continental parliament. She was in May 2018, elected the Second Vice President of PAP.

Hon. Cisse is a member of the Mali’s delegation and an experienced PAP parliamentarian who lost her position as a member of the PAP Bureau when the parliament of Mali was dissolved in preparation for the March 2020 parliamentary election.

She was re-elected but before she could return to PAP, young military officers on August 18, 2020 overthrew Mali’s democratically elected President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and dissolved the parliament.

Faced with international pressure, the military officers handed over to a caretaker government. The caretaker government  later in December 2020 established a 121-member National Transitional Council (CNT) as the legislative arm of the caretaker government.

Hon. Cisse fought her way back and was on January 4, 2021 appointed a member of the CNT, replacing Imam Oumarou Diarra, an influential member of the M5-RFP who resigned from the CNT.

An influential member of the UNEEM (National Union of Pupils and Students of Mali) Hon. Cisse was first elected into the Mali Parliament in 2007, to represent Bourem and has severally been re-elected since then. She was a principal officer of the assembly; President of the Mali-Gabon-DRC-Equatorial Guinea-Sao Tome-Congo BZV friendship group, President of the Women-Development and Child Protection Network.

Can Hon. Aichata Cisse beat the odds to emerge PAP President on May 27, 2021?