Duarte Pacheco of Portugal has been elected the new president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla congratulated Pacheco on his election as IPU President. In a message to Pacheco, Birla said, “Your victory in the election is a victory of your vision to strengthen parliamentary diplomacy.” Speaker Om Birla hopes that Pacheco’s faith in the ideals of democracy, the rule of law, the building of consensus and multilateralism will help build a stronger and more focused inter – parliamentary union to keep pace with the changing times.

Earlier, the Governing Council of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) resumed its business in virtual format at the 206th session of Geneva. The election process for electing a new IPU president by remote electronic secret ballot ended at 1930 with a 24-hour window for voting.

A delegation of Indian Parliament led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, MP Poonamben Hematbhai Madam, MP, Shri Swapan Dasgupta, MP attended the IPU Governing Council meeting. Secretary General Lok Sabha and Snehalatha Srivastava also attended the virtual meeting.

During the day, elections were also held to file vacancies in the IPU Executive Committee. During the election, Lawrence Fehlman Rielle of Switzerland and Beatriz Argimon of Uruguay were unanimously elected to the IPU Executive Committee.