Resumption of suspended PAP Session to hold November 13 to 27

Resumption of the election session of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) that was suspended on June 1, 2021 has been tentatively scheduled to hold from November 13 to 27, 2021 at the seat of the Parliament in Midrand, South Africa.

The above dates are however, subject to approval of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) and provision of budget.

This was contained in a letter dated September 1, 2021 signed by the Clerk of PAP, Mr. Vipya Harawa addressed to the Honourable Members of the PAP and copied to Clerks of National Parliaments.

According to Mr. Harawa, election of the Bureau of the PAP will take place on Tuesday November 16 while the election of the Bureaus of Caucuses will take place on Wednesday November 24.

Election of Bureaus of Permanent Committees will take place on Thursday 18 and Friday 19, November.

Venue for the election according to the Harawa, will be changed to a different country “if a formal invitation is received in terms of Rule 34 of the PAP’s Rules of Procedure”.

However, the said Rule 34 requires that such invitation by a member state to host a session must be approved by the Bureau which is currently not in place. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

“Pursuant to Rule 15(2) of the Rules of Procedure of the Pan African Parliament, no fresh submission of candidates for the positions of President and Vice Presidents will be made as this is a resumption of the suspended session”.

“Presidential candidates stand as at June 1, 2021 unless a candidate has fallen under a situation of ineligibility or a Caucus elects to reconsider its nomination”.

“A regional caucus which opts to reconsider its nominations for election to the office of President or Vice President may do so provided that it resubmits the duly nominated candidates to the Clerk on the nomination form prescribed…”.