Egypt enters race for AU Commission Deputy Chair against Morocco and Algeria

Egypt has joined Morocco and Algeria in a diplomatic race within the African Union (AU) to secure the position of Deputy Chairperson of the AU Commission, a role that will be assigned to North Africa.

On Wednesday, the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Egypt to the African Union in Addis Ababa organized a «major event» attended by members of diplomatic missions accredited to the AU, the AU Commission, and African think tanks and research centers to promote Hanan Morsy's candidacy for the position, according to a statement posted by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Facebook.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aaty delivered a recorded speech expressing the Egyptian leadership's «full confidence in the candidate's competence and her ability to contribute to the institutional reform process».

The Egyptian candidate will compete against Morocco's Latifa Akherbach, the current head of the Higher Authority for Audiovisual Communication, and Algeria's Selma Malika Haddadi, ambassador to Ethiopia and former director of African affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Morocco submitted its candidacy on August 3, while Algeria did so on July 31. The elections will take place on the sidelines of the next ordinary summit of the African Union, scheduled for February 2025.

In 2023, Morocco and Algeria expressed their desire to win the presidency of the rotating African organization for 2024. However, due to their differences, they withdrew their candidacy for the position in favor of Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould El Ghazwani.