Chad’s Foreign Affairs Minister emerges AU Commission Chairman

Foreign Affairs Minister of Chad, Mr Moussa Mahamat, was on Monday elected Chairman, African Union Commission (AUC) .

He succeeds South Africa’s Nkosazan Dlamini-Zuma, whose tenure has ended.

In a keenly contested poll, conducted by the Head of States and Governments at the 28th AU summit of in Addis Ababa, Mahamat defeated other candidates from Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Senegal and Kenya.

He garnered 38 votes during the seventh round of voting held after the preceding ones failed to produce a winner.

A candidate needs to win two-thirds of total votes cast to be declared winner.

Mr Thomas Quarty of Ghana was elected Deputy Chairperson. He defeated opponents from Djibouti, Congo and Libya.

For election of AU Commissioners, conducted by the Executive Council of the union, Nigeria’s Ms. Fatimah Mohammed lost to her Algerian opponent, Mr Smail Chergui.