The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Features Correspondent
The long-awaited election of the Pan African Parliament (PAP) president, which will see the Southern African region presenting Zimbabwe Chiefs’ Council president, Chief Fortune Charumbira as its candidate, has now been set for April.
The decision was made in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 3 February where the Pan African Parliament Executive Council had gathered ahead of the African Union summit.
Elections for the PAP were aborted in May last year over disagreements on whether candidates from the Western and Northern African regions were eligible to contest given that they had occupied the office before.
At the core of the disagreement, the Southern Africa caucus insists election of the president of the institution should rotate among the five regions of the AU, namely, North, West, East, Central and Southern Africa. The AU, which includes all its organs, follows a principle of rotation with its leadership positions to unite the continent.
The Southern Region is of the view that only the Northern and Southern regions should have presented candidates for president because only these two are yet to have PAP presidency.
If Zimbabwe’s presidential candidate Chief Fortune Charumbira wins the April slated elections, he will join Mr Sifundo Chief Moyo, the Secretary General of the Pan African Postal Union (PAPU) at the helm of these respective continental bodies. Mr Moyo was elected by acclamation during the 10th Ordinary Session of the Union’s Plenipotentiary Conference held in June 2021 in Victoria Falls.
However, something remains common in both these elections. The PAP May elections were postponed due to a session in Midrand, South Africa which was marred by scenes of chaos because of strong disagreements about the conduct of elections. On the other hand, the PAPU elections were held after midnight in Victoria Falls following more than seven hours of fierce debate as PAPU member states disagreed on eligibility of some countries and candidates as well as voting criteria.
The candidate from Mali pulled out leaving Mr Moyo to contest Mr Sameh Solaiman of Egypt, who was however, disqualified on the 11th hour as he did not meet requirements. All these disagreements came as a result of not upholding the principle of rotation which however, proved to divide the continental bodies.
However, the greatest question will be: Is there any legal framework or guideline that speaks to the principle of rotation? An AU Legal Counsel wrote a letter to the Clerk of the Pan African Parliament stressing that rotation must be implemented otherwise the elections would be invalid.
The letter was regarded as a directive but however, other legal experts were of the notion that it did not hold water.
Former clerk of the PAP, Zwelethu Madasa from South Africa wrote an opinion article and said:
“As the former Clerk of the PAP, I am very familiar with the AU governance architecture, which assist in understanding the issues at hand. The PAP elections are conducted only according to the rules of procedure as stipulated in the Protocol establishing the PAP. Rotation of the PAP presidency is not yet codified in the rules of procedure to make it binding.”
However, the decision made on 3 February 2022 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the Pan African Parliament Executive Council will not only come as a relief to Zimbabwe and other Southern African states but unifier for Africans as a whole.
The reason is simply the mere fact that Africa is divided into a number of regional blocs that include regional economic communities and former colonial perforations. These divisions have arguably been viewed as some of the reasons why other regions and countries have never held top continental positions.
The eight regional economic communities recognised by the AU are: the East African Community (EAC), Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Community of the Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and; the Southern African Development Community (SADC). In addition, our former colonial perforations saw the continent having Anglophone, Francophones and Portuguese which is the case with Mozambique and Angola. These blocs present a not so equal landscape especially when the countries have to neglect the principle of rotation.
Zimbabwean MP at the Pan African Parliament Cde Pupurai Togarepi described the principle of rotation as an equitable way for giving all regions a chance to provide leadership while expressing confident on Chief Fortune Charumbira’s leadership qualities.
“The principle of rotation is an equitable way for giving the five regions of the AU to give leadership to its various organs. The principle of rotation was always practised by other organs except PAP where people with personal interests wanted to monopolise leadership of the organ.
“For Zimbabwe this is an opportunity for the country to provide leadership to this important organ of the AU. The principle of rotation guarantees that all regions despite the number or size of those countries they will have the same opportunity lead in the PAP and other organs. ln Chief Charumbira we have a seasoned leader to transform the PAP into a world class Parliament conscious of the needs and aspirations of the people of Africa,” said Cde Togarepi.
In its first term, from 2004 to 2009, PAP was led by former member of parliament Gertrude Mongela from Tanzania in the Eastern region. From 2009 to 2015, the task fell to Idriss Ndele Moussa from Chad in the Central region. Between 2012 and 2015 former Western region parliamentarian Nigerian Bethel Nnaemeka Amadi took the helm.
In 2015, however, according to a statement by a PAP official, the leadership was taken over by Central region candidate, former PAP president Roger Nkodo Dang from Cameroon, who was re-elected in 2018. Chief Charumbira from Zimbabwe is currently the acting president until the next elections and is also the region’s candidate to succeed Nkodo Dang.
@nyeve14
