Mhamoud Ali Youssouf of Djibouti has been elected Chairperson of the African Union, AU, Commission.
Youssouf emerged winner of the election after five rounds of voting on Saturday.
He defeated Odinga Odinga of Kenya in the 4th round.
Youssouf takes over from Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad, who spent two terms of four years each.
His emergence stunned Odinga, who observers expected to win the election.
However, Odinga spent three minutes out of the five allowed reviewing the history of Pan-Africanism and African solidarity.
He had not spoken about his vision when the electronic timer cut him off.
On his part, Youssouf, who won 33 votes, sounded more convincing when presenting his vision.
Odinga had started well by leading in the first round.
But he lost votes even after the third candidate from Madagascar dropped off.
Youssouf has been foreign minister of Djibouti since 2005.
The 59-year-old was previously Djibouti’s ambassador to Egypt and also served as foreign minister in the governments of three presidents.
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