The Botswana and Southern African Development Community (SADC) candidate for the position of African Union Commission (AUC) chairwoman, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, is counting on the support of member countries which previously abstained from voting, to win the election, which is scheduled for early next year. The elections are to be held during the 28th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government at AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 30 and 31. Candidatures should be submitted to the AUC on September 30. The poll will be held six months after an elective summit in Kigali, Rwanda, where none of the three candidates vying to succeed South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma got a two-thirds majority. Venson-Moitoi led with 16 votes, ahead of Agapito Mba Mokuy of Equatorial Guinea (representing central Africa), who got 12 votes. Specioza Naigaga Wandira Kazibwe of Uganda (representing east Africa) secured 11 votes. The 15-member Economic Commission of West African States, which could not field a candidate, absconded from voting. Meanwhile, there were reservations about Kazibwe’s nomination as she was probed for abuse of state funds during her tenure as her country’s vice-president. Some also questioned the suitability of Mokuy because Equatorial Guinea…