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…