NEW IPU PRESIDENT TO BE ELECTED TOMORROW
The Governing Council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will elect the new IPU President for a three-year term of office tomorrow, Wednesday, 19 October 2005, at 3 p.m. at the Geneva International Conference Centre (CICG). The two candidates in the running are Belgian Deputy Geert Versnick and the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini.
Mr. Versnick, the candidate proposed by the Twelve Plus Group of the IPU, was born in Ghent, Belgium on 15 December 1956. A member of the Flemish Liberal Party (VLD), he holds a law degree from the University of Ghent and was admitted to the Bar in that city. Mr. Versnick has served as Chairman of the Committee on External Relations, and presided over the Commission of Inquiry investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing of Patrice Lumumba and the possible involvement of the Belgian authorities. He is also deputy mayor in charge of public works of the city of Ghent.
Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, the candidate proposed by the Italian Inter-Parliamentary Group, was born in Bologna, Italy on 3 December 1955. He has been President of the Christian Democratic Centre. Since his election in 2001 as President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies - the third highest office in the country - he has no longer involved in the activities of his party. Mr. Casini has served on the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee and was Vice-President of the Commission of Inquiry on Terrorism in Italy, and was a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2001.
Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 143 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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