Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti has been elected Chairperson of the AU Commission after five rounds of voting, defeating Odinga Odinga of Kenya in the 4th round in the election held on Saturday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Youssouf takes over from Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad, who spent two terms of 4 years each.
Youssouf’s emergence stunned Odinga, who observers expected to win.
However, Odinga spent three minutes out of the five allowed reviewing the history of Pan-Africanism and African solidarity.
He had not spoken about his vision when the electronic timer cut him off.
In contrast, Youssouf sounded more convincing when presenting his vision.
Odinga had started well by leading in the first round, only to lose votes even after the third candidate from Madagascar dropped off.