Djibouti’s Mahamoud Ali Youssouf beats Raila to win AUC Chair seat

Kenya’s candidate in the African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson elections, Raila Odinga, has lost the race in the exercise that was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Raila won the first two rounds of voting, but then went on to lose the next three rounds to Djibouti candidate Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.

In the first round, Raila garnered 20 votes against Mahamoud’s 18, while Richard Randriamandrato of Madagascar bagged 10 votes. There was one abstained vote.

In the second round, Raila secured 22 votes, Mahamoud got 19, and Randriamandrato received 7 votes. One nation abstained from the second round as well.

The former Kenyan Prime Minister, however, came up short in the third round after receiving 20 votes, losing to Mahamoud who rose to first place with 23 votes, while Randriamandrato came third with 5 votes.

There was still one abstention, and Randriamandrato was eliminated from the election, leaving Raila head-to-head against Mahamoud.

Mahamoud maintained his lead in the fourth round, scoring 25 votes against Raila’s 21 votes. There was one spoilt vote while one nation abstained.

In the fifth round, Mahamoud garnered 26 votes while Raila scored 21 votes, and one nation abstained from the vote.

Mahamoud maintained his lead into the sixth round, garnering a similar 26 votes, while Raila got 22 votes with one abstention.

Raila was then dropped from the vote, with Mahamoud remaining the only candidate in the seventh round, in a bid to secure two-thirds of the votes.

Mahamoud won the AUC Chair seat after garnering 33 votes, constituting the reuired two-thirds, in round 7, and is now set to replace the outgoing Moussa Faki of Chad who has held the position for 8 years.