ADDIS ABABA: The chairman of the African Union's executive body, Moussa Faki Mahamat, was re-elected for a second four-year term Saturday during a virtual summit of heads of state and government, AU officials said. "51 votes out of 55 member states voted for @AUCMoussaFaki for a second term as Chairperson of the @AfricanUnion Commission," spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo said on Twitter, a result that was confirmed by a separate AU official.
Faki, a former prime minister of Chad, was running unopposed in the contest to head the restructured commission, though some member states had voiced concerns about voting online in the secret ballot.
On January 25 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wrote a letter to the AU leadership requesting that elections be postponed "for a period of one year or until such a time when the Assembly is in a position to hold a physical meeting to deal with AU Commission choices".
In the end, though, Faki's re-election bid went off with little resistance on the first day of a two-day summit that, in addition to internal elections, is expected to focus on the AU's response to the Covid-19 pandemic and conflicts across the continent.
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