Assembly poll of Tibetan Govt-in-Exile
Dharamsala, September 11 – Around 7,000 registered Tibetan voters in McLeodganj today cast their votes to elect the 14th Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies (ATPD) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile. Elections for the 43 seats are being held in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Europe and North America and more than 82,000 Tibetan went to the polls in these countries.
The Tibetan election process is divided into two rounds and voting was done for the preliminary round today. Since there are no political parties and any Tibetan can contest, only those candidates who manage to get at least 33 per cent of votes would go through to the second and final round. The voting for the final round has been scheduled for March 18, 2006.
The total voting is reported to be nearly 80 per cent today at the 10 polling booths set up in McLeodganj, which is more than the previous elections in 2001 when only 60 per cent Tibetan cast their votes.
Indirect campaigning by a group called the Youth for better MPs added a new colour to the elections. Mr Tenzin Tsundue, its spokesman, said the orthodox and existing MPs had got involved in petty politics, neglecting the basic issue of Tibet.
Rejecting the argument of the sitting MPs that since they were towing the middle-path approach of the Dalai Lama, a policy many young candidates would not approve of, the election of new faces would only lead to unnecessary friction in Parliament, Mr Tsundue said the Dalai Lama had himself sought the democratisation of the Tibetan society. “It is important that all viewpoints are expressed in the Assembly,” he said.
There is, however, a section of Tibetan population, which does not want to elect candidates who take exception to the policies of the Dalai Lama.
