Mahamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti has been elected AU Chairperson after five rounds of voting, defeating Odinga Odinga of Kenya in the fourth round.
Youssouf takes over from Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad as AU Chairperson, who spent two terms of four years each.
His emergence stunned Odinga, who observers expected to win.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, Odinga spent three minutes out of the five allowed reviewing the history of Pan-Africanism and African solidarity.
Read also: Tinubu arrives in Ethiopia for AU summit
He had not spoken about his vision when the electronic timer cut him off.
In contrast, Youssouf sounded more convincing when presenting his vision.
Odinga had started well by leading in the first round, only to lose votes even after the third candidate from Madagascar dropped off.