Dharamshala November 8 – The Election Commission announced the results of the preliminary election for the 14th Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies that took place on 11 September 2005. As required by the election rules and regulations the Election Commission had done the counting with ATPD members as witnesses. Out of the total 82231 registered voters 40324 people have actually cast their votes.
Voting was carried out at 57 different regional election commissions in India, Nepal, Bhutan, USA and Europe.
The election rules and regulations require that the Election Commission must declare a list of nominees at least thrice the number of actual seats meaning that the commission reserves the right to announce a list of a minimum of 30 nominees or more. The Election Commission has announced a list of 50 candidates each from the three provinces and 10 candidates each from the different traditions of Tibetan Buddhism, and Bon, USA and Canada, and Europe.
ATPD Vice Chairperson Gyari Dolma has won the highest number of votes from Dotoe with 6272 votes in the preliminaries. Tseten Norbu, former president of the Tibetan Youth Congress has topped the Utsang category with 8406 votes. Penpa Tsering, the director of the Delhi based Tibetan Parliamentary and policy Research Centre has won the highest votes from Amdo province with 1038 votes. Pema Jungney, the Chairperson of the ATPD topped the Sakya tradition with 298 votes, Tsering Phuntsok has won 1294 votes to top the Nyingma category, Geshe Thupten Phelgye has drawn 659 votes to top the Gelug category, Sonam Damdul has won 213votes to top Kagyu category and Geshe Tenzin Gelek of Varanasi won the highest votes from Bon tradition.
Tenzin Choeden has won 412 votes to top the USA and Canada category while Samdho Jampa Tsering has won 175 votes to top the Europe category.
The detailed list of the nominees will be made public through the 57 regional election commissions shortly.
