* Bruising contest between candidates from Gabon, S. Africa
* AU chairman Yayi says Africa’s world credibility at stake
* South Africa’s Dlamini-Zuma rejects risk of polarisation
By Aaron Maasho and Pascal Fletcher
ADDIS ABABA, July 15 (Reuters) – Failure by the African
Union to resolve a bruising leadership contest between
candidates from rival English- and French-speaking blocs will
divide the continental body and undermine its credibility in the
world, the AU’s chairman said on Sunday.
Meeting at a summit in Addis Ababa, leaders seeking to
defuse post-coup crises in Mali and Guinea-Bissau have faced the
distraction of an internal battle over who will head the AU
Commission, its main steering body and voice outside Africa.
This has dragged on since last year.
Incumbent AU Commission chief Jean Ping of Gabon, a former
foreign minister, is being challenged for the post by South
Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a former foreign minister and
health minister who is currently home affairs minister.
A vote at a summit in January ended in stalemate, splitting
the continent between its French-speaking bloc of states, which
broadly backs Ping, and English-speaking member states,
especially the southern group, which have largely swung behind
the ex-wife of South African President Jacob Zuma.
With the contest still deadlocked in Addis Ababa, and with
no sign of a consensus candidate emerging, lobbying by both
Ping’s and Dlamini-Zuma’s supporters has intensified ahead of an
vote expected later on Sunday.
Continued…
