Ghana in Search of Regional Integration Agenda 48 The enabling protocol stipulated that the representatives of the Community Parliament and their alternates should be elected through direct universal suffrage, meaning that citizens of each country must directly elect their parliamentarians. Until such time that this condition is fulfilled, the protocol empowers the national assemblies of member states to elect members of the parliament from amongst themselves. This gives the composition and membership of the parliament a transitional character. 66 It is worth stating that some important decisions have been taken in the last few years to transform the Community Parliament into a truly representative one in which the delegates are to be elected through universal adult suffrage. This is in light of the fact that the stipulated five-year term for the transitional period in 2000 had already elapsed. The Parliament functions as any other national parliament and constitutes the assembly of the peoples of the Economic Community of West African States. The members are known as representatives, thus representing the entire people of West Africa. The Parliament is headed by a Speaker, chosen from its membership and is vested with the highest authority. He performs the primary functions of opening, closing and suspending sittings and cannot perform his official duties in combination with any other, for instance, a speaker of a national parliament. 67 The Speaker is legally not allowed to participate in debates but if he so wishes must vacate the seat temporarily until the debate is over. There is also provision for six Deputy Speakers which is part of a sixteen-member Bureau, the highest decision-making organ of the Parliament, responsible for the administrative, organisational, financial and budgetary issues. Another important organ is the Conference of Chairpersons which controls affairs relating to the countries and national parliaments of the Community. The Conference of Chairpersons supervises the composition and competence of Standing Committees, ad hoc delegations and temporary committees of inquiry as well as administrative and budgetary proposals regarding the various parliamentary groups to the Bureau. The Conference of Chairpersons is composed of the Speaker of the Community Parliament, the Deputy Speakers, Chairmen of the Parliamentary Groups as well as the Chairpersons of Committees. The seat of the Community Parliament is to be determined by the Authority of Heads of State and Government though currently based in Abuja, courtesy the government of Nigeria. The official working languages of the Parliament are English, French, Portuguese and Spanish(the latter through the insistence of Cape Verde). 66 Kenneth Dzirasah, op. cit., p. 4. 67 Linda Quashigah,“Restructuring of the ECOWAS Parliament: Challenges and Prospects.” MA Dissertation, Legon Centre for International Affairs(LECIA), University of Ghana, Legon, August, 2007, p. 20.