AU Chairperson election postponed to January 2017
July 18, 2016 (KHARTOUM) – The African Union (AU) Summit on Monday has postponed to next January the election of AU Chairperson who will take over from the South African Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma,.
Three candidates were running to win the position of the AU Chairperson: Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, former Ugandan vice president, Pelonomi Venson Moitoi, Botswana Foreign Minister, and Agapito Mba Mokuy, Equatorial Guinea Foreign Minister.
During the first round of the election no candidate was able to attain two thirds of the votes as Botswana candidate got 16 votes, Equatorial Guinea, 12 votes, and Uganda’s candidate got 11 votes.
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Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ibrahim Ghandour, told Sudan News Agency that after seven rounds of election no candidate was able to attain two thirds of votes.
“African leaders have decided to postpone electing a new AU Chairperson to the next African summit in Addis Ababa in January,” said Ghandour noting that the door would be open to receive new nominations for the top AU post.
Ghandour pointed that 28 African countries have abstained voting, stressing that this is over 50% of the African countries.
Concerning Sudan’s position from the AU Chairperson election, Ghandour said that Khartoum is committed to the African consensus.
In June, Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir has made intensive contacts with a number of his African counterparts to rally support for Sudan’s candidates to several African Union Commission’s (AUC) positions.
According to Ghandour, Sudan has nominated former Foreign Ministry Under-Secretary Rahamt Allah Mohamed Osman for the AUC’s Political Affairs commissioner post besides nominating former Minister of Social Welfare Amira al-Fadil for the Social Affairs commissioner position.
(ST)