ADDIS ABABA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The African Union (AU) has decided to deploy observers in Egypt for the presidential election scheduled later this month in the northern African nation.

The AU said Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat has approved deployment of a short-term AU election observation mission (AUEOM) to Egypt to observe the election scheduled for March 26-28.

Led by the former foreign minister of Mali, Abdoulaye Diop, the AUEOM comprises 40 short-term observers to be deployed in Egypt from March 21 to 31, according to a statement from AU on Saturday.

The AU said the deployment followed the invitation of the government and National Elections Commission of Egypt.

On the eve of this year, the 55-member pan-African bloc announced that including Egypt, about 18 elections would be conducted in its member states and that it would closely monitor them.