Mr. Duarte Pacheco of Portugal has been elected the new President of Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) for the period 2020-2023. Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla congratulated Mr. Pacheco for his election as President of IPU. Mr. Birla hoped that Mr. Pacheco’s belief in ideals of democracy, rule of law, consensus building and multilateralism would help in building a stronger and more focused Inter Parliamentary Union in sync with the changing times.
 
The election process to elect the new IPU President took place through remote electronic secret ballot, with a 24 hour window for casting votes. Earlier, the Governing Council of IPU, Geneva resumed its business during the 206th Session in virtual format.