Dharamsala, September 25 – Thousands of Tibetans living in-exile in Dharamsala town in Himacahal Pradesh recently cast votes for a vacant parliament seat.
Officials said Tibetans living in Nepal were also casting votes simultaneously there.
“This is the preliminary stage of the elections for this vacant seat. All voters for the Amdo province are voting in Nepal and India today. There are about 4,000 voters for this province only.
The counting will be done on 19th and 20th October. The final list will be declared on 24th December,” said Namgyal D.Teykhang, Tibetan Election Commissioner. The election for Amdo province for the 13th Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies (ATPD) of the Tibetan government was necessitated after a member resigned early this month.
“One of the members of the Tibetan-parliament resigned few days back and according to the Tibetan charter, the vacancy of the member of parliament should be filled within 180 days,” Acharya Yashi Phunstok, president of the National Democratic Party of Tibet. The Tibetan parliament, also known as Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies, is the highest elected legislative organ of Tibetans-in- exile.
The Tibetan people, both inside and outside Tibet, consider the government-in-exile to be the sole legitimate government of Tibet.
An estimated 134,000 Tibetans live in exile, the majority of them in India and Nepal.
Forty-six members make up the assembly representing the three provincial regions and five major religious sects of Tibet. A large number of Tibetans fled to India alongwith their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama after an abortive 1959 uprising against China.
