With less than a month to go before the first session of the African parliament, interest in the new legislature appears to be at a low in various parts of the continent. In a message posted on its website, the Addis Ababa-based African Union (AU) has urged member states which have not done so to speed up the submission of names of representatives to the Pan-African Parliament. Each country is required to nominate five members from its national parliament to the continental legislature. The AU also requested member states to get formal approval from national legislatures as soon as possible for participation in the African parliament, and to send notification of this approval to the AU Commission. By Thursday (Feb. 26), only 32 of the AU's 53 members had submitted the names of representatives to attend the first session of the parliament.