ICA: Monique Leroux replaces Dame Pauline as President

Indian Cooperative has once again proved bang on right about Monique Leroux winning the fiercely contested Presidential election of the International Cooperative Alliance. And she has won with a huge margin.

Ms Leroux polled 407 votes while the runner up Ariel Guarco from Argentina polled 204.Third candidate Jean Louis Bancel from France polled 66 and Euides De Freitas Aquino from Brazil polled 64 votes. As predicted Ms Leroux polled double the votes compared to the runner up.

A Canadian national and Chief of Desjardins Group, Monique Leroux was solidly backed by Indian cooperators- a country which boasts the strongest cooperative movement in the world. All the top cooperators of the country from IFFCO Managing Director Dr US Awasthi to NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav to NAFSCOB Chairman to NCUI Vice-Chairman G H Amin have overwhelmingly supported Ms Leroux, as reported earlier in these columns.

Ms Monique’s Jaipur trip last month in this context proved crucial as she interacted with cooperators and impressed them with her strong candidacy. IFFCO MD gave enough hints about his support to Ms Leroux when this correspondent visited him to convey Deepwali greetings. “I have played my part”, he said with a meaningful glance.

Though we could not talk to NCUI President on the issue his close aide Sunil Kumar Singh phoned from Antalya early morning on Friday informing they all are voting for Ms Leroux. “We have instructions from Chandra Palji”, he frankly admitted.

The mood was clear as we have been reporting since the ICA conference started. Torrents of mails being received by Indian Cooperative convinced us about her winning hands down.

A formidable cooperator Ms Leroux is also president, chair of the board and chief executive officer of Desjardins Group, a federation of 400 credit unions and numerous subsidiaries claiming 7 million members and clients in Canada and operating, through Dévelopment international Desjardins, in more than 30 emerging and developing countries.

It is learnt that Europe which has the highest number of votes also supported her candidature. The others in the race were Jean Louis Bancel from France, Ariel Guarco from Argentina and Euides De Freitas Aquino from Brazil.

Earlier Dame Pauline resigned. Anca Voinea- a cooperative journalist tweeted Dame Pauline reaction soon after her resignation. She wrote ” Dame Pauline: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to have been the president of this wonderful movement”.

(With inputs provided by Prem Chandra Munshi, IFFCO Director)