Jatiya Sangsad Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has been elected Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) that promotes parliamentary democracy in the former British colonies.
She is the first Bangladeshi national who has been made chief of the executive committee of the prestigious body.
Delegates from 53 commonwealth countries on Thursday elected the Bangladesh speaker at the 60th CPA conference in Cameroon capital, Yaounde, where the conference was hosted.
Shirin Sharmin was elected chairperson of the 35-member executive committee by defeating the lone candidate from Cayman Islands, Julianna O’Connor-Connolly, speaker of the British-ruled small state.
She recieved 70 votes while Julianna bagged 67 votes, SM Manzur, director of the public relations wing of the parliament secretariat, told the Dhaka Tribune.
She will hold the post for the next three years, replacing British national, Alan Haselhurst.
Out of the total 321 votes, 137 voters from 175 members of the association turned up at the general assembly which is the lone authorised body to elect the chairperson of the CPA executive committee.
The rest of the members come from different regions—Africa, Australia, British Islands and Mediterranean, Canada, Caribbean, Americas And Atlantic, India, Pacific and South-East Asia—and different forums of the association.
According to the CPA charter, the national and the state legislatures are the members of the association. The voters must be present at the general assembly.
Soon after the election, Shirin Sharmin chaired a meeting of the new executive committee at the conference venue.
The Bangladesh parliament speaker is the second Bengali to adorn the post. The West Bengal legislative assembly speaker Hashim Abdul Halim was the first to get elected chairperson of the CPA executive committee for three-year term (2005-08).
Shirin Sharmin is the 21st chairperson of the CPA executive committee since the association was established in 1967.