African Parliament supports Khattab in UNESCO vote

CAIRO – 10 October 2017: The President of the Pan-African Parliament, Nkodo Dang from Cameroon, voiced support for Moushira Khattab’s candidacy for the director-general post, in an official statement issued during the parliament’s session Tuesday.

Nkodo’s statement declared unified African support for the Egyptian candidate.

“In the name of all African peoples, we announce our support to Ambassador Moushira Khattab in the UNESCO elections. We call on all African institutions and permanent representatives at the UNESCO to support Khattab as the candidate of Africa,” the statement read.

On Monday, seven countries, including Egypt, vied for the leadership of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France. In the first round of the voting process, 58 members of the UNESCO Executive Board voted in a secret ballot to select a successor director-general for Bulgarian Irina Bokova.

Egypt and Africa’s candidate, Ambassador Moushira Khattab, came in third place with 11 votes, while Qatar’s candidate Hamad Abdul Aziz al-Kawari received 19 votes, and France’s Audrey Azoulay received 13 votes in the first round of votes. On the other hand, Lebanese candidate Vera al-Khoury amassed six votes, Chinese candidate Qian Tang received five votes, while Pham Sanh Chau of Vietnam and Polad Bülbüloglu of Azerbaijan gained two votes each.

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union, which held its inaugural session in March 2004. The PAP oversees and has advisory and consultative powers. Initially the seat of the Pan-African Parliament was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; but it was later moved to Midrand, South Africa.