Honolulu, 9 September 2016 – Dr. Ali A. Kaka (Kenya) won a seat as IUCN Regional Councillor from Africa next to Jesca Eriyo Osuna (Uganda), Mamadou Diallo (Senegal), and Jennifer Mohamed-Katerere (South Africa).

The elections of a new IUCN Council started on Wednesday, September 7th, when the candidates for Regional Councilor introduced themselves to the IUCN Members’ Assembly. Right after the presentations of candidates, the voting took place.

The large gathering IUCN members logged in to their voting machines with their electronic voting cards. The first attempt to vote for the candidates of the African Region was challenged by a number of members, who had technical difficulties with the voting procedure. In the spirit of the IUCN family, the procedure was repeated and technicians assisted those facing problems. The entire Assembly applauded the decision to repeat the vote. The members completed the voting, region by region. The intense mood of voting was lightened with a “point of order” remark made by the representative of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, Prof. Manfred Niekisch, about how the voting by region did not follow the alphabetic order as was previously promised.

The announcement of the final results did not take place after the vote, but happened only in the evening of Friday, September 9th. The ballroom of the Hawaiian Convention Center in Honolulu was packed, fingers were crossed, and the atmosphere was electric – who would win the seats for the IUCN Council?

The CIC would like to extend its sincere congratulations to Dr. Kaka, and his fellow Regional Councilors, on this major achievement!