Chad’s foreign minister Moussa Faki Mahamat elected new AU Commission chairperson

Addis Ababa January 30/2017 Chad’s Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat is the next Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) as he won the contest to take over the Chairmanship of the Commission today.

Leaders of the African Union elected Moussa Faki Mahamat today for a heavily contested post from five candidates vying for the post during the 28th AU Summit in Addis Ababa.

Five candidates were contesting to replace the outgoing AUC Chairperson Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, who was the first female to serve as Chairperson of the Commission.

Dr. Zuma refused to seek a second term in office after completing a four-year spell as AUC’s Chairperson.

Moussa Faki Mahamat is a Chadian politician who was Prime Minister of Chad from 2003 to 2005.

The politician worked as the president of the country’s Economic, Social, and Cultural Council from 2007 to 2008, and has been Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The election of an AUC Chairperson was made fruitlessly last July and was postponed after candidates failed to secure the required number of votes to win the race.

To be declared a winner, a candidate should get at least two-thirds of the vote which is 36 votes but after three rounds of voting, no candidate was successful in last July’s voting.

Mahamat won with 38 votes.

A Kenyan government spokesman told ENA in Addis Ababa that Kenya’s Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed, the strong candidate to replace Zuma, congratulated the new AUC Chair and pledged to work with him for a better Africa.

It was learned that the Kenyan candidate secured 26 votes in the hotly contested elections.

Ghanaian Kwesi Quartet was elected Deputy Chairperson of the AUC.