The decision by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to ask its member states to vote against ODM leader Raila Odinga in Saturday’s African Union Commission chairperson election is poised to present new challenges for the opposition chief.
AU, is set to conduct the elections of the new AUC chairperson on Saturday February 15, 2025, during the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU and the 46th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council.
During the summit, AU will hold sessions involving the executive council, before later convening a session of Heads of States of member nations. It is during the AU Assembly Heads of State and government session that the AU will elect the AUC chairperson and deputy chairpersons.
However, a new letter issued by SADC to its 16-member states on Thursday, has presented a new dynamic to the race.
This is after SADC urged its member countries to vote for Madagascar’s candidate Richard Randriamandrato, following what it said was a request by Madagascar’s president to the SADC secretariat.
SADC’s Executive Secretary Elias Magosi, in a letter dated February 12, said Madagascar had formally asked the bloc to support Randriamandrato for the AUC chairmanship, a move that is likely to complicate matters for Mr Odinga in the race.
Magosi also in his letter, emphasized that Randriamandrato had been chosen as the only candidate from the bloc.
“I write to notify you, Honourable Minister, that Honourable Richard J. Randriamandrato, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Madagascar, has been shortlisted as the sole candidate from the SADC region for the position of Chairperson of the African Union Commission,” Magosi said.
He added that given the limited time before the election, there was no need to convene an Extraordinary Council of Ministers to deliberate on Madagascar’s request, instead, the secretariat’s letter seeking regional backing would suffice.
“In consultation with the Chairperson of Council, and given the short time before the election of the Chairperson, there is no need to convene an Extraordinary Council of Ministers to consider the request from Madagascar. A letter from the Secretariat seeking SADC Member States’ support for Madagascar’s candidature should suffice,” he said.
SADC is currently made up of 16 states including Angola, Botswana, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
An endorsement of Randriamandrato could therefore mean that Odinga, who is also running against Djibouti’s foreign minister Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, may have a hard time garnering the required two-thirds majority votes to win the seat.
According to the AU regulations, a candidate must garner at least two-thirds majority of the votes cast, to win the commission chairperson seat.
The AU, established in 2002 to replace the Organization of African Unity (OAU), was founded with a mission of strengthening integration, self-determination and cooperation across Africa.
The African Union is currently classified into five regions – Southern, Central, Eastern, Western and Northern Africa. The Central, Southern and Western regions have all produced representatives to the commission since 2002.
A resolution passed and endorsed by the AU Executive Council in March 2024, reserved the AUC chairman position to a candidate from the East Africa region. The Northern Africa region was reserved the deputy chairperson position.
The committee also abolished a previously proposed rule that would see the seat of the commission chairperson reserved for a woman in the spirit of gender equity, instead asking the different regions interested in the seat to nominate either gender for the position.
Some of the past leaders of the commission include Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma of South Africa, Jean Ping of Gabon, Alpha Oumar Konaré of Mali and Amara Essy of Côte d’Ivoire who held the position of AUC chairman on an interim basis during the transition from OAU to AU between 2002 and 2003.
The outgoing AUC chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, is from Chad and has held the position since his election in 2017.
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