In what comes as a blow to Kenya’s Raila Odinga, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has thrown its weight behind Madagascar’s Richard Randriamandrato in Saturday’s African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Election.
In a last minute diplomatic push, the SADC Secretariat has written a letter to its 16 member states, confirming that Madagascar had formally requested the SADC member states to support its candidate.
Given the short time before the election of the AUC Chairperson, SADC has opted not to convene an Extraordinary Council of Ministers to consider the island nation’s request.
“This letter, therefore, serves to encourage SADC Member States to support Mr. Richard J. Randriamandrato, a candidate from our region, for the position of the AUC Chairperson during the upcoming elections of Senior Leadership of the African Union Commission,” SADC says in a letter dated 12th February 2025.
SADC Executive Secretary Elias Magosi copied the letter to all SADC member states who include; Angola, Eswatini, Botswana, Lesotho, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Seychelles.
Other member states are; Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, South Africa, United Republic Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Randriamandrato will be facing off with Raila and Djibouti’s Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, with SADC’s latest move promising to introduce a fresh twist.
Meanwhile, six countries will not be participating in the voting at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The six are suspended from the African Union due to coups and civil wars. They include; Niger, Mali, Guinea, Gabon, Burkina Faso and Sudan.
For a candidate to clinch the position, he or she needs to attain 2/3 of the votes casted.
Some of the countries that have indicated they are supporting Raila’s AUC bid include Togo, Gambia, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Equitorial Guinea, the DRC, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Sychelles, Mauritius, Rwanda, Burundi, Algeria, South Sudan and Eritrea.
SADC’s letter to its member states is just a request, and members can decide to vote otherwise. It remains to be seen how some of the aforementioned countries which are member states of SADC will cast their votes come Saturday, February 15.
