Inter-parliamentary Union polls: Portugal wins, Pakistani candidate gets lowest votes

Portugal won the elections for the post the president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) with 222 votes on Monday. Candidates from four countries were in the fray for elections- Portugal's Duarte Pacheco, Pakistan's Muhammad Sanjrani, Uzbekistan's Akmal Saidov and Canada's Pakistani origin Salma Ataullahjan. The new IPU President was elected with 56 per cent of the vote in a single round of voting.

Uzbekistan got 67 votes, Canada govt 53 votes and Pakistan got the lowest number of votes at 52. According to officials, India was opposed to Pakistan’s candidature and was expected to either Portugal’s Duarte Pacheco or Akmal Saidov from Uzbekistan over Muhammad Sanjrani from Pakistan.

Duarte Pacheco will be the 30th President of the IPU and has been a member of Portugal's Parliament since 1991. He has held different functions in Parliament, including as a Member of the Budget and Finance Committee and the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Portuguese Communities.

Inter-Parliamentary Union or IPU, based in Geneva is a body consisting of representatives from the National Parliaments of 179 countries. Each national parliament sends 3 of its legislatures to represent the country whenever the meeting of IPU takes place. 

The Governing Council is meeting virtually amid the COVID crisis from first to 4th November and will be voting virtually. 400 parliamentarians from over 140 IPU Member Parliaments had registered to vote electronically.

The elections took place through a remote electronic secret ballot. The Indian Parliamentary Delegation is led by Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla, and Poonamben Hematbhai Maadam and Swapan Dasgupta both legislators in the Indian Parliament. 

The term of the new IPU president will be from 2020-2023. The Previous IPU President was Mexican MP Gabriela Cuevas Barron who completed the tenure in October.