The Chairperson of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), Rt Hon. Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, MP, and Speaker of the Bangladesh Parliament, officially opened the 61st CPA General Assembly at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Battersea, London, United Kingdom, on Monday 5th October, 2015.

The 61st Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and General Assembly was previously slated to take place in Islamabad, Pakistan. However, in August, the Executive Committee cancelled the Pakistan Branch's right to host the conference following the branch's refusal to invite the Jammu and Kashmir to the conference.

The United Kingdom Charity Commission thus issued an order allowing the Executive Committee to transform into the General Assembly in order to consider the business that should have been considered by the General Assembly. The order was issued pursuant to section 105 of the United Kingdom Charities Act 2011; the Act under which the CPA is registered.

Present at the General Assembly were the officers of the Association and Regional Representatives from all the nine regions of the CPA.  These are Africa, Asia, Australia, the British Islands and the Mediterranean, Canada, Caribbean, Americas and Atlantic, India, Pacific and South East Asia.

The General Assembly appointed a new Secretary-General of the Association, approved the 2016 budget and 2014 audited accounts. In addition, it readmitted the Fiji Branch into the CPA and terminated the membership of the Norfolk Islands Branch.

The Chairperson thanked branches that had continued to support the Association by hosting it’s various programmes. She further urged branches to apply for funding to carry out their own CPA activities.