CPC 2017 to end with various resolutions on Tuesday

Officials say that a separate statement pressing Myanmar to repatriate Rohingya refugees may be made at the closing ceremony of the event organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, or CPA.

Bangladesh Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury’s three-year tenure as CPA chairperson will held after this year’s conference.

The CPC general session was held at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre on Tuesday morning. The new chairperson will selected at the meeting.

The nominees to chair the second largest parliamentary forum in the world for the next three years are Cameroon’s Emilia Monjowa Lifanka, Montserrat’s Shirly M Osborne and the Cook Islands’ Nikki Rattell.

The position will be decided at a meeting of the executive committee on Tuesday afternoon. The executive committee members will also have dinner with President Md Abdul Hamid.

The CPA representatives will be taken to visit the Ansar Academy in Gazipur’s Sofipur on Wednesday.

The sessions for the CPA conference began in Dhaka on Nov 1, but the event was officially inaugurated by Vice Patron Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday.

Forty-four of the 52 Commonwealth nations and 114 of the CPA’s 180 branches are participating in this year’s meeting. Fifty-six national and provincial speakers, 23 deputy speakers and approximately 500 parliamentarians have come to Dhaka for the event.

CPC 2017 is organised by the CPA’s Bangladesh branch and the Secretariat of the Bangladesh National Parliament.