During AU Summit held in July 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, the decision was made to suspend and postpone the elections of Members of the AU Commission.
The suspension of the elections was as a result of none of the three (3) contenders for the position of the Chairperson of the Commission obtaining the required two-thirds majority, after seven rounds of voting. As a result it was also decided to re-open the nomination process to allow both the previous candidates, as well as new candidates to vie for any of the ten (10) positions.
Following these decisions, the AU Commission announced the re-opening of the nomination process to the public through a press release dated 9 August 2016. Thereafter, the nomination process for the next Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and eight (8) Commissioners of the African Union (AU) Commission was completed before the lapse of the submission deadline.
During the allocated timeframe, the AU Commission has received nominees for the ten (10) positions in the Commission.
For the position of Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, the AU Commission has received six (6) applications for the position of Chairperson and four (4) for the position of Deputy Chairperson, respectively. One application for the position of Chairperson has subsequently been withdrawn.
The rest of applicants for the eight positions for Members of the Commission are as follows:
1. Six (6) candidates for position of Peace and Security;
2. Six (6) candidates for the position of Political Affairs;
3. Five (5) candidates for the position of Infrastructure and Energy;
4. Six (6) candidates for position Social Affairs;
5. Seven (7) candidates for position of Human Resources, Science and Technology;
6. Four (4) candidates for position of Trade and Industry;
7. Five (5) candidate’s for position of Rural Economy and Agriculture; and
8. Two (2) candidates for Economic Affairs.
In Addition, the AU Commission has already circulated lists of submitted nominees to the Member States on 19 October 2016, at least three (3) months before election: as required by the rules of procedure of the Assembly and Executive Council, the Statutes of the Commission as well as Modalities for the Election of Members of the Commission, the candidatures for the posts of the Chairperson, Deputy Chairperson and the Commissioners.
The AUC wishes to inform all parties that the elections for the Members of the AU Commission are scheduled to be held during the 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, scheduled for 30-31 January, 2017, at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Distributed by APO on behalf of African Union Commission (AUC).
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Source: APO – Africa-Newsroom: latest news releases related to Africa
