Annoh-Dompreh calls for peace as chaos erupt at Pan-African Parliament

Memeber of Parliament (MP) for the Nsawam-Adoagyiri constituency and Majority Chief Whip, Hon. Frank Annoh-Dompreh has called for peace between members of the Pan-African Parliament.

This was after chaos erupted in the Chamber on Monday, May 31, 2021, in their quest to elect to new leadership.

The Fourth Ordinary Session of the Fifth Parliament of the Pan-African Parliament is in session in Johannesburg, South Africa.

While debating in the Chamber, one of South Africa’s representatives, the leader of Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema engaged in a banter with another MP and threatened to “kill” him.

Shortly after that incident, it was announced that the planned elections could no longer be carried out and that a staffer had tested positive for COVID-19. This development was met with disapproval by some of the members, leading to a chaotic scene in the House.

Some MPs positioned that the sudden postponement of the election was a strategy to extend the term of office of the incumbent President, Cameroon's Roger Nkodo Dang.

However, Nsawam-Adoagyiri lawmaker, Hon. Annoh-Dompreh pleaded with the members for the prevalence of peace for smooth and successful elections.

Addressing the Chamber, he said: “Madam Speaker, if we don’t make sense out of this, we will not have a justification for our trips paid for by our member countries to come here and engage with this fisticuffs and exchanges, it will not help us.”

Mr. Frank Annoh Dompreh who has been nominated as the Chair of the Permanent Committee of Rural Economy, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of the Pan-African Parliament, observed that since the legislative bodies had made firm positions, it was difficult for them to accept other opinions from other parliamentarians.

“Various caucuses have taken an entrenched position so people want to make sense, people are speaking logic, people are quoting existing protocols and yet nobody listens. We cannot continue like this forever, we have to make sense. We are thinking beings,” he stressed.

He added: “I see very experienced senior people in the Chamber that is why we have to fall on their knowledge and logic so let's not be trapped in this confusion.”

Mr. Annoh-Dompreh chided the members to be behave themselves to avoid the intervention of AU correspondents before they do the needful.

He further expressed worried over the happenings in the House saying, “I don’t think there is anybody here from any of the caucuses who is more important than the other. We are all vacant and that is the common denominator.”

He welcomed anybody that wins the election for peace to remain in the Parliament.

“I don’t mind somebody comes from another caucus wins the Presidency, I will respect that person. But if people are going to go on and say unless my candidate wins, we will not make progress, is not going to be helping us.”

He, therefore, suggested, “We should maybe settle on interim executives and interim bureau, and if we can do that, I think we will be able to make progress.”

The Majority Chief Whip, therefore, appealed to the Parliament to respect every decision made in the Chamber to halt any misunderstanding.

President Akufo-Addo last week met and interacted with Members of the Pan-African Parliament including Joe Osei Owusu, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak, Collins Dauda and Ophelia Hayford who are all Ghanaian MPs.

Currently, the elections have been postponed as debates on the Rotation of the Presidency of the Pan-African Parliament are ongoing.