Election of African Union chief delayed

By Mohammed Taha Tewekel

KIGALI, Rwanda (AA) - The African Union (AU) failed to elect a new leader on Monday, postponing the decision to next year, a delegate told Anadolu Agency.

A summit in Kigali, Rwanda, had been supposed to find replacements for AU Commission President Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

“The election is postponed until January 2017, taking into consideration the appeal made by 31 of the 54 AU member states,” a senior participant said on condition of anonymity.

Zuma’s spokesman Jacob Enoh Eben said on Twitter that “as no winner emerges... Commission elections postponed till next summit.”

The Foreign Ministers of Botswana and Equatorial Guinea and the former Vice President of Ugand had been the three candidates to succeed South African Zuma.