AU election was postponed because of a blockage

- Lejeune MbellaMbella, Minister of External Relations

What appreciation can you make of the last summit of heads of state of the African Union in July in Kigali, Rwanda?

Lejeune MbellaMbella, Minister

of External Relations

My first sentiments are that of satisfaction because of the wonderful organization done by the Rwandan Government that I had the opportunity to congratulate on behalf of the Head of state H.E. Paul Biya. The Rwandan authorities provided all it took to make the summit to be successful and without incidents. Then the cleanliness of the city of Kigali impressed all the delegations. The rapid reconstruction of the town in so short a time has given the Rwandan people a sense of nationhood and has enabled them to quickly forget the tragic events of 20 years ago, to concentrate on the development of their country. Concerning the summit itself, I hasten to hail the Chadian authorities under whose presidency the Union was placed, for respecting the decision taken in June 2015 to rationalize the agenda of the summit to include only the most important and very strategic issues. That was exactly what happened in Kigali and which permitted the heads of state to examine the most pressing issues affecting the continent. Permit me to also congratulate the participants for the frank and intense debates, some of which produced the historic decisions reached, even though I must say that all the objectives set out for the summit were not met.

The Summit did not witness the renewal of the executive bureau of the Commission. Can we talk of a failure?

I wouldn’t say it was a failure but rather a simple postponement, and which is provided for by the texts. Even though, the ideal should have been the quick and effective putting in place of the new executive of the commission, to avoid an extension of the latency that usually characterizes activities during the pre-electoral period and the ambiance at the end of the mandate of some executive members of the commission. True, the scenario that we witnessed was not what we had wished, particularly in a context where the AU needs to rapidly put together all the means, including human resources, to enable it to effectively put in place the 2063 Agenda, which demands that every minute is exploited positively to guarantee success. Unfortunately, because of the absence of consensus, non of the three candidates from South, Central and East Africa vying for the post of president of the commission obtained the requisite 2/3 of the votes (that is 36 out of the 54 states in the Union). Even the Botswanese candidate who was the unique candidate in the 7th round of voting could still not get the minimum votes required. So we had no option than to postpone the election to January 2017 and also leave the list of candidates open. The postponement extends to the aspirants for the different commissioner positions, who cannot be designated before the election of the president of the commission. It also permits the West African countries that were at the centre of the stalemate, owing to their request weeks prior to the election, to have the opportunity to also present their candidate in the person of the Senegalese, AbdoulayeBathily, whose candidature was already advertised during the Kigali summit.

So how do you envisage the election in January 2017 following this postponement?

Evidently, it will be very hotly contested especially giving that the list of candidates has been left open for new contestants for the presidency, which of course, wets the appetite of all the sub-regions. But I should say that the member states of the AU must do everything to find a consensus candidate if they must avoid a replay of what happened in Kigali where a whole sub-region – West Africa, boycotted the election en-masse making it impossible for any candidate to obtain the minimum of votes required and which paralysed the entire process. Consequently, it will be important for all to accept dialogue and negotiation to obtain much-needed consensus and thus reinforce the unity of the continent to the detriment of diversions. Happily enough, one of the recommendations of the Kigali summit was for the texts to be revised, especially the area concerning election in the Commission, so as to avoid situations of blockages in the future. You can recall that the situation in Kigali was similar to that of January 2012 where the election was postponed for six months to permit for the election of the outgoing president Mrs. Zuma.

What other issues were tabled for discussions during the summit?

Member states debated on several other important issues and the resolutions made will be determinant for the future of the Union. There was for example the issue of the financing of the budget of the union. Member states are opposed to contributions from sources other than Africa. They argue that the union cannot lay claim to independence if it continues to be funded from outside. The mode of financing the Union has therefore been reviewed to put an end to this dependence.