(27-10-23) LUANDA — Dr. Tulia Ackson, the Speaker of the Tanzanian Parliament, has secured her position as the 31st President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), following a heated election at the 147th IPU Assembly in Luanda, Angola on Friday. Ackson received 57% of the vote, defeating candidates from Malawi, Senegal, and Somalia in a secret ballot that saw participation from 130 member nations.
The election has been clouded by controversy stemming from Somalia. Somali MP Marwo Abdibashir Hagi, who was one of four African women candidates, has accused the Speaker of the House of Representatives of Somalia, Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe, of deliberately undermining her candidacy.
Madobe sent a last-minute letter to the IPU, claiming Bashir had decided to withdraw from the race—an assertion that she strenuously denied. Despite remaining in the competition, Bashir gained only 11 votes, lagging far behind Ackson’s 172, as well as the candidates from Malawi and Senegal, who obtained 61 and 59 votes respectively.
The tension in the Somali camp escalated further as a delegation from the Somali Parliament, originally slated to lobby on behalf of Bashir, was noticeably absent from the IPU assembly.
Dr. Tulia Ackson, a seasoned legal expert with degrees from the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Cape Town, took the opportunity to express her gratitude and commitment to her victory. “Thank you for the confidence you have bestowed upon me. I affirm my commitment to making the IPU an effective, accountable, and transparent organisation,” she said.
The IPU instituted voting measures to promote gender balance, offering member parliaments three votes if their delegations were gender-balanced, as opposed to just one vote for single-sex delegations.
Halqabsi News
