By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, April 26: With just a day to go for the official announcement of the 2016 Election results, the Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission, the apex Tibetan court, today nullified a stay order appeal put forward by a group of Tibetan volunteers to defer the announcement of the poll results on the grounds that a case regarding spellings of the incumbent Sikyong Lobsang Sangay’s name is pending in the court.
In its response to the plaintiffs, the Tibetan apex court stated that the stay order request put forward by them on April 25 was not connected to the ongoing case filed on April 15 regarding the spelling error of Lobsang Sangay and that the Tibetan Election Commission may go ahead with the announcement of the result as scheduled.
The group had earlier filed a case against the Chief Election Commission Sonam Choephel Shosur (defendant no. 1) and Lobsang Sangay (defendant no. 2) over a violation of electoral rules. They mentioned in their statement of case that it was irresponsible on the part of the defendant no. 1 to let go of the spelling mistake. They also argued that despite the defendant no.2 being fully aware of the error in his name the negligence shown towards correcting it shows disrespect to the administration and the public.
At a press conference earlier in the day, Tashi Yangzom and Kunchok Passang, representatives of the group expressed their dismay saying that it is important for the Tibetan democracy, a gift from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to have righteous administrators. “We notice that the common people have to go through a lot of trouble and procedures for minor errors in the spelling of their names. For instance, students opting for scholarships for further studies have to undergo two-three months of procedures to rectify small mistakes in their names’ spellings, thus hindering their chances of getting scholarships for further studies,” said Tashi Yangzom, adding that everybody from PM to an ordinary people should be equal under the law.
Earlier last month when the spelling mistake in the Tibetan PM’s name first came to light after the final voting, CEC told Phayul that the mistake would not affect the vote count since there were only two candidates, both with distinct names.
The EC and the apex judicial body declined to make any further comments on the matter stating that the case is still under judicial proceedings. The EC announced that the 2016 election result declaration would proceed as scheduled.
