Kathmandu, September 11 – Over 80,000 Tibetans living in exile worldwide went to the polls Sunday to elect their new parliament.
Thousands of members of the diaspora, aged 18 and above, voted in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Canada, North America and Europe to choose the new members of the Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies, the single-chamber parliament of the Tibetan government in exile headquartered in Dharamsala in India.
In Nepal, Sunday’s election was conducted in a hushed manner since Nepal has cracked down on Tibetans since January this year and closed down the office here of the resident representative of the Dalai Lama, the leader of the Tibetans, in an effort to please Beijing.
Kathmandu has said it considers Tibet to be an integral part of China and the Tibetan community living in Nepal is not allowed to express any public support for the Dalai Lama, including observing his birthday.
Sunday’s primary election will choose a list of candidates for the 45-member parliament in exile.
After the ballots are sent to Dharamsala from different parts of the world and counted, the top ones will be chosen for a second election to choose 30 deputies.
The Dalai Lama can nominate three more members while Europe will elect one deputy and North America and Canada one more.
The remaining 10 will be chosen from the five different religious communities, including one non-Buddhist one.
The deputies have a five-year term.
Before the clinching election in March, the diaspora scattered across the world will go to the polls once again in December to choose their prime minister or Kalon Tripa.
The term of the incumbent, Prof Samdhing Rinpoche, ends next year. Despite being occupied by China since 1950, the Tibetans still hope their country will be independent one day. “It took India more than 100 years to become independent, said one voter who was voting for the fifth time.
