LONDON, (Reuters) – A $5 million prize for former  African leaders who set examples of honest, democratic  government will not be awarded for a second year running, the  sponsor said yesterday.

Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born telecommunications entrepreneur,  founded the world’s largest individual award as a way to  encourage good governance in a continent blighted by corruption  and a frequently loose adherence to democratic principles.

A seven-member prize committee, chaired by former United  Nations’ Secretary-General Kofi Annan, met on Saturday but did  not select a winner, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation said.

The committee did not choose a winner last year either. It  told the foundation there had been no new candidates and so no  winner had been selected.

Democratically elected former leaders of sub-Saharan African  countries who left office in the past three years are eligible  for the award.

“The standards set for the prize winner are high and the  number of potential candidates each year is small. So it is  likely that there will be years when no prize is awarded,”  Ibrahim said in a statement.

Following last year’s decision not to award the prize,  Ibrahim denied it was a snub to leaders such as former South  African President Thabo Mbeki or former Nigerian President  Olusegun Obasanjo, who would have been eligible.

The two winners of the prize so far are former Botswana  President Festus Mogae and Mozambique’s former President Joaquim  Chissano. Former South African President Nelson Mandela was made  an honorary laureate in 2007.

The winner receives $5 million over 10 years and then  $200,000 a year for life, with another possible $200,000 a year  for 10 years for “good causes” that the former leader supports.