African Union Summit and elections: Something old, something new
08-02-2021 Bruce Byiers and Philomena Apiko, ECDPM commentary, 8 February 2021
With the African Union (AU)’s 34th Summit of heads of state taking place last weekend, it is a good time to reflect on what came out of it, and what the year ahead might hold. Along with the rotating AU chair being passed from President Ramaphosa of South Africa to President Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a revised election process means that Moussa Faki of Chad became the first African Union Commission (AUC) chair to have a second term since the transformation of the Organisation of African Unity to the AU almost 20 years ago. Joined by some new faces, this indicates a degree of administrative continuity, which could be a good thing given the AUC reforms still underway, and especially, multiple ‘burning issues’. The question is what this