No winner for $ 5m Africa prize

London, 19 Oct-(ANA)-No African leader has emerged as this year's winner of the Mo Ibrahim prize - a $ 5m (3m) award to the continent's most impressive ex-leader.

Now in its third year, the prize is given to a democratically elected leader from sub-Saharan Africa who has served their term and then left office.

South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Ghana's John Kufuor are among this year's potential winners.

The prize is awarded by Sudanese telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim.

The winner receives $5m over 10 years, and then $200,000 a year for life after that.

Mr Ibrahim argues that the prize is needed because many African leaders come from poor backgrounds and are tempted to hang on to power for fear that poverty is what awaits them when they give up the levers of power.

But our analyst says recent evidence of the prize's effectiveness across Africa is not encouraging.

Uganda, Chad and Cameroon have all changed their constitutions so their leaders can retain their positions.

And there have been coups in Guinea, Mauritania and Madagascar, as well as several elections that fell well short of international standards.

The countries that have received most praise from Mo Ibrahim's foundation this year - Mauritius, Cape Verde and Seychelles - are far from the continent's centres of power. (ANA)

FA/ANA/19 October 2009---