Dharamshala, August 17: As the Tibetans exile populace gear up for the 2016 elections for the Tibetan PM and the members of the Tibetan Parliament in exile, there is a growing awareness in the community for maximum voter turnout for the elections.
Tenzin Jigdal, International Coordinator of the International Tibet Network, started a unique campaign using Facebook to appeal Tibetans to register themselves as voters, a requirement to cast ballot as per the guidelines of the Election Commission.
Jigdal, started a hash tag chain, #greenbookchallenge on Facebook with the aim of encouraging Tibetans across the globe to register themselves and spread the challenge by posting images of themselves with their green book, and tagging other people.
In conversation with Phayul, Jigdal said, “Even though the Election Commission (EC) may have announced the deadline date for registration, I felt it did not reach to every section of the society. So I thought of this idea to use images of ethnic Tibetan animals along with the hash tag challenge to make it fun yet informative.”
Asked why he chose Facebook, Jigdal said, “I chose Facebook because it is widely used by Tibetans of all ages including the monastic community. Moreover, it is our collective duty as Tibetans to vote for a good leader.”
Taking inspiration from the viral ISL ice bucket challenge, Jigdal said what started as a small initiative has been received well by Tibetans of all ages.
To take part in the challenge, one must provide a ‘good’ selfie proof with ‘updated’ green book and nominate others.
The challenge has also generated discussion over various issues surrounding the registration of voters with some questioning the very need for the registration. “I was not aware that if I had voted in the last election I don’t need to register this time. It is through this challenge that I knew,” said Dhondup Gyalpo, a Teacher at TCV school.
The registration period may have closed for the Tibetans in India but it is still open for the Tibetans living in North America and Europe, which ends on August 25 and 28 respectively. As per Planning Commission survey, 2010, there are 18,999 Tibetans living abroad, of which majority are settled in these two continents.
