Parsons achieved the required absolute majority of 82 votes at the first time of asking, amassing a tally of 84.

It means the Brazilian becomes only the third President of the organisation, succeeding Sir Philip Craven whose 16-year tenure has come to an end.

China's Zhang Haidi finished second with 47 votes, followed by Denmark's John Petersson with 19 and Canada's Patrick Jarvis with 12.

"From the demonstrations of support that I have had during the campaign, I thought it was possible to win in the first round, but I thought it was very difficult for that to happen," Parsons said in a post-election press conference.

"So it was not a complete surprise, but I thought it was not probable."

Parsons was President of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB) during the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which, at one stage, were under threat of being cancelled or moved from Brazil amid a multitude of financial and organisational problems.

insidethegames understands that Rio 2016 chief executive Sidney Levy called IPC counterpart Xavier Gonzalez four weeks before the Opening Ceremony in order to tell them they had no money to organise the Games.

At this stage, they had already missed a deadline to pay the first instalment of $4.3 million (£3.3 million/€3.6 million).

The IPC appealed directly to Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes and organisers were eventually granted an extra BRL$150 million (£37 million/$49 million/€40 million) in Municipal Government funding.

Sir Philip has previously paid tribute to Parsons, the then IPC vice-president, for the "outstanding role he played in finding solutions to the many problems we faced in Brazil ahead of the Games".

"As everybody knows the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games were really challenging for the IPC as an organisation," Parsons said.

"I always tend to look to the positive side of situations, so I think the membership understood my role, in a difficult situation, to work together at the time with the IPC Management team, with the then President Philip Craven, and try to take the Games from a situation of concern to a situation where the athletes will enjoy and the spectators will enjoy.

"I think in the end, we delivered a very good Games - the way the athletes put together some amazing performances, the spectators at the Cariocas were amazing, so I think you can really say that we've never had an atmosphere in every single venue as we had in Rio.

"So what I think it helped with regard to my candidature was that the membership recognised in my efforts and the fact that I am a team player and I have some, I would say, diplomatic and political skills that even under pressure have been useful for this organisation."

Parsons explained how his first involvement with the Paralympic Movement came in 1997, when he joined the CPB in a communications capacity.

"After a few weeks of working within that organisation, I understood that I had found my place in this world, which is in the Paralympic Movement," he said.

"I know that I don’t have a disability, I know I am not a Paralympian, but I belong to this Movement.

"I'm connected, I'm attached to this Movement forever.

"In this Movement, I have become a better person, a better man because of my involvement with athletes.

"In this Movement I found my wife, so it's a Movement that has made me the man I am today and the best way to thank and give back to this Movement is working hard, as I have been doing for the last 20 years, and I will be doing for the next four years at least."

Newly-elected vice-president Duane Kale, a four-time Paralympic swimming champion, joined Parsons at the press conference.

The New Zealander, who beat Petersson to the role in an incredibly tight vote that ended 81-79, said he does not think it matters that his predecessor Parsons is not a former athlete.

"What we now have got is a combination with diversity," Kale said.

"I can provide some of that athlete background.

"I've got a disability, so collectively we're better positioned as an organisation because we have diversity.

"I think that's what will make this combination very, very strong."

Kale said he does not believe his small margin of victory over Petersson will make his job any harder.

"I firmly believe that this segment that was coming from the membership in the vote was one of 'there are two people that we actually want,'" he added.

"It wasn't about winning or losing.

"We had an outcome like we can have in a sport event, but I have no doubts that either one of us, in this case myself, will have got the full support of the membership."