BNP gets Asia Pacific Democrat Union’s full membership

BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has been elected one of the three vice-chairmen of Asia Pacific Democrat Union (APDU) as the organisation gave the Bangladesh Nationalist Party its full membership.

At a meeting of the APDU Council held in Colombo on Friday, Sri Lankan prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected chairman of the union while New Zealand National Party president Peter Goodfellow as deputy chairman, Mirza Fakhrul told news agency UNB.

Two other elected vice-chairmen of the organisation are Tenzin Khangsar (Canada) and Hassan Latheef (Maldives).

Teena McQueen (Australia) was elected APDU treasurer while Bruce Edwards (Australia) executive secretary.

Fakhrul said the APDU member states elected the seven-member office-bearers through direct vote.

On behalf of the BNP, its international affairs secretary Humayun Kabir joined the meeting.

“BNP applied for being a member of APDU nearly a year back as we were its associate member. The meeting of the APDU Council upgraded BNP's status from associate to full membership,” Fakhrul said.

From Bangladesh, he said, only the BNP was made the member of APDU, an international association of member parties close to the International Democratic Union.