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AL lawmaker Saber becomes president of International Parliamentary Union

Staff Correspondent
Ruling Awami League lawmaker Saber Hossain Chowdhury was elected president of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) yesterday after he defeated three other contenders with
the biggest margin of votes to date.
He is the first Bangladeshi president of the IPU in the organisation's 125-year history since its inception in 1889.
IPU is the international organisation of parliaments.
Saber bagged 169 votes, while his closest competition, Bronwyn Bishop of Australia's House of Representatives, bagged 95 votes in the election on the concluding day of the 131st IPU Assembly at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.Indonesian MP Nurhayati Ali Assegaf
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and former speaker of the Maldives parliament Abdulla Shahid also contested in the polls.
"This is a historic victory for Bangladesh. I am delighted and proud to be a Bangladeshi," Saber Chowdhury in an immediate reaction told The Daily Star over the phone from Switzerland.
A former "prisoner of conscience", Saber is the third IPU president from South Asia after Indian politician Najma Heptulla (1999-2002) and Punjabi politician Gurdial Singh Dhillon (1973-1976).
Saber took over from former Moroccan speaker of parliament Abdelwahad Radi who ended his three-year term yesterday.
A businessman with an education in law,
politics and economics in the UK, Saber, as a former president of IPU's Committee on Peace and International Security, played an important role on issues relating to a key objective ofthe IPU.
"Politics and public service is about helping people to solve their problems, to live their dreams. My belief is to always improve upon what you find and leave a better, more peaceful world. I will be an active president, accessible and leading from the front," he said at the IPU headquarters.
President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, Deputy Speaker Fazle Rabbi Miah and ChiefWhip of the Parliament ASM Firoz in separate statements congratulated Saber.