Update on the 2020 elections of the PSC

Automatic Heading TextDate | 10 February, 2020

Election of new members of the PSC

The election for the 10 members of the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) was held on 7 February 2020 at the meeting of the 36th ordinary session of the Executive Council. The election was held at the level of the Executive Council pursuant to Decision Assembly/AU/Dec.106 (VI) of the Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly that delegated the authority of electing members of the PSC as provided for in Article 5 of the PSC Protocol.

This brief provides an update on the conduct and result of the elections. Candidates It is not unusual that the dynamics in the regional processes for candidacy for the PSC elections to vary from region to region. While any member states fulfilling the requirements for membership of the PSC may submit its candidature, the rules on the election suggest that the selection of member states shall be conducted at the regional level.

As examined in our previous Insight on the candidates for the election of the PSC (http://www.amaniafricaet. org/images/Reports/Candidatesforthe2020electionsofth ePSC.pdf), there were 13 candidates contained in the report presented for the election of the 10 members during the Executive Council Session. In the consultation
on the candidates of the West Africa region, Liberia withdrew its candidacy, thereby giving a clean slate for the election to the PSC for the West Africa region. Accordingly, at the time of election, there were only 12 candidates.

During the election on 7 February, there were the same number of candidates as the number of seats for the four
regions of the AU, namely West Africa, Southern Africa, North Africa and Central Africa. By contrast, East Africa had two more candidates (4) than the number of seats available for election (2). While the East Africa region held consultation for having a consensus on the list of candidates, this did not yield result. When the election was held, Somalia stated the withdrawal of its candidacy in favor of Djibouti. The remaining three candidates competed for the two seats. Update on the 2020 elections of the PSC

Conduct and outcome of the election.

The elections were held in line with the PSC Protocol and the Modalities on the Elections of the PSC. The conduct
of the election followed the regional allocation of the seats of the PSC. Below is the map of the new members of the PSC elected for two years term as of 1 April 2020. In the election for the Central Africa region, during the first round Chad garnered the required 2/3rd majority vote with 35 votes and was elected. Since the second candidate for the region Cameroon did not receive the required majority vote during the first round, as the only candidate it was elected in the second round with 40 votes and 3 abstentions.

In the election for the two seats available for East Africa, following Somalia’s withdrawal the election was limited to Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan. Since none of the candidates received the required majority vote during the first three round of voting, the candidate with the least votes, in this case Sudan was removed from the list in accordance with the AU rules on election. In the next round, Ethiopia received the 2/3rd required majority with 36 votes. Djibouti also got re-elected in the succeeding round after receiving 36 votes and six abstentions.

For the election for the North Africa region, Egypt was the only candidate and it received the required majority vote with 43 votes and one abstention in the first round of the voting to be elected to the PSC.
For Southern Africa, Malawi and Mozambique got elected after garnering 36 and 35 votes respectively in the first round of voting. Benin, Ghana and Senegal also got elected in the first round of voting receiving 34, 34, and 34 votes respectively with two abstentions.