OIF could elect secretary general in unprecedented vote
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Kassataya
Tensions between DR Congo and Rwanda over the leadership of the International Organisation of La Francophonie could lead to a vote rather than the usual consensus appointment. Four candidates are running in the ballot scheduled for Monday 16 November at the Phnom Penh summit, according to AFP.
Member states of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF) could abandon consensus to choose its next secretary general in a vote on Monday in Phnom Penh, due to tensions between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. Four candidates are running: Rwandan Louise Mushikiwabo, the outgoing secretary general, Congolese Juliana Lumumba, Mauritanian Coumba Ba and Romanian Dacian Ciolos, according to AFP.
Louise Mushikiwabo has a solid base of support, but faces opposition from the DRC, which is seeking to prevent her from serving a third term. Dacian Ciolos, a former Romanian prime minister and former European commissioner for Agriculture, meanwhile advocates a "useful" Francophonie, with French as a "language of economic opportunities", according to AFP.
Congolese leaders have indicated that they would leave the OIF if Louise Mushikiwabo is re-elected, according to consistent sources cited by AFP. A departure by the DRC, the second-largest Francophone country after France with 57.3 million speakers according to the OIF, would come just over a year after Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali withdrew.
The vote is due to take place during the OIF summit organised in Phnom Penh on 15 and 16 November, after the DRC challenged the method of choosing the head of La Francophonie and Félix Tshisekedi refused a postponement of the OIF election.
