The African Union (AU) has admitted “a serious dilemma” over the fate of Field Marshall Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who is running for Egypt’s Presidency after ousting former President Mohammed Morsi last year.
“There is a big dilemma about what to do with the developments in Egypt,” said Ambassador Paul Lolo Bolus, President of the AU Peace and Security Council, after a meeting Wednesday, to discuss Egypt’s upcoming presidential elections.
The Nigerian Diplomat, holding the rotational Presidency, said the Council met to consider the developments in Egypt, including Field Marshall El-Sisi’s run for the presidency during the elections, planned for 27 May, 2014.
Under the AU’s current rules governing unconstitutional changes of government in Africa, the candidacy of El-Sisi is invalid because he was in charge of the Egyptian military when it ousted President Morsi due to popular demand.
“Those who bring about unconstitutional changes of government should not be rewarded by return to constitutional order with a pat on the back,” Ambassador Bolus told PANA.
At its meeting, the PSC decided to await a report to be submitted by an AU panel on Egypt, which recently visited the North African country.
The AU High-Level Panel, comprising former AU Commission Chairperson, Prof. Alpha Konare, former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, and former Prime Minister of Djibouti, Dileita Mohamed Dileita, visited Cairo from 6-9 April, 2014.
The visit was a follow up to two earlier missions, 27 July to 5 August 2013 and from 28 August to 5 September 2013, to discuss the political developments in the post-Arab spring.
“The Panel is preparing its report and we decided to await its report. But the challenge in Egypt will go beyond the 27 May Presidential election because whoever is elected during the election will be appropriately in office but the legitimacy of the process would not have met the AU criteria,” Ambassador Bolus said.
The Egypt Panel was established on 8 July, 2013, by the Chairperson of the AU Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, based on the decisions of the PSC on the situation in Egypt.
Egypt’s membership of the AU was equally suspended on 5 July, 2013. The AU Panel submitted a progress report to the 416th meeting of the PSC, held on 29 January, 2014, in Addis Ababa.
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