Executive Council decision on PAP did not require consultation with regions before convening election session

The published decisions of the 40^th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council, 02-03 February 2022, Addis Ababa Ethiopia on the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) did not mandate the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to embark on consultations with regional caucuses before convening the election session for the parliament, contrary to earlier report.

It would be recalled that there were earlier reports that the Executive Council during its meeting on February 3, 2022 directed the AUC Chairperson to embark on consultations with the other four regional caucuses that could not meet with the AUC delegation that visited the PAP Secretariat in September 2021.

On February 23 and 24 2022, the AUC delegation held consultations with the four caucuses namely the East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa and North Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia which observers have described as cosmetic.

However, the report of the decisions of the said Executive Council meeting published at the official AU website (https://au.int/sites/default/files/decisions/41584-EX_CL_Dec_1143-1167_XL_E.pdf) shows that the Council directed the Commission to arrange the holding of PAP’ elections by the end of April 2022 and to report back to the next Ordinary Session of the Executive Council. No mention was made of consultations before the elections.

Analysts had questioned the rationale behind the purported requirement of consultations before convening the election session since the issue of rotation and venue for the session had been decided by the Council. Why waste resources on such a cosmetic venture which only served to delay the election session?