Tibetans across the world all set to elect their Parliament-in-exile

After making some landmark achievements like reaffirming the Tibetans' rights to choose a successor to Dalai Lama with the successful passage of the Tibet Policy and Support Act in the United States, the Tibetan government-in-exile in India is gripped in election fever.

Lobsang Sangay completes his second term as President (Sikyong) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) next year. This leaves the door open for new candidates to take up the key role of leading the CTA headquarters in Dharamsala after a decade. 

With an aggressive China testing New Delhi by pushing boundaries on the undemarcated Line of Actual Control and wanting to appoint its own successor to Dalai Lama, the role of the Tibetan Administration and its President becomes far more important in 2021. 

It’ll be a decade since Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama formally relinquished his political and administrative role by signing amendments to the Constitution of the Tibetan government-in-exile in 2011.

The political and administrative powers had first been handed over to Sangay, a Harward scholar, who was elected the then Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. The same year, the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile also approved that the title of 'Tibetan Government-in-Exile' be changed to 'Tibetan Administration'. 

The Tibetan Administration led by its President and 45 Parliamentarians will be voted to power by around 80,000 voters around the world through a ballot system of elections and the preliminary round will take place on January 3. Out of the 80,000 registered voters, 55,000 are in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The President is elected for a five year tenure and the rest of the Parliamentarians will be elected to 45 seats- which includes ten members each from the three traditional provinces of Tibet; two each from five religious constituencies which include four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and native Tibetan religion; two each from the Tibetan communities in Europe and North America and one from the Tibetan community in Australasia (Australia, New Zealand and Asia excluding India, Nepal and Bhutan). Two seats are reserved for women in the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile. 

In the Tibetan settlements and colonies across the country, from Dharamsala to Delhi and down south, the campaigns are in full swing with posters and speeches being relayed by the contesting candidates. Almost anyone with the ''green card'' and a valid registration certificate as a Tibetan refugee can contest the elections. 

But all eyes are on the four front runners for the post of President—Kasur Dongchung Ngodup, a first generation Tibetan refugee who is presently the representative of Dalai Lama in New Delhi; Dolma Gyari, a former activist and well known Tibetan politician in exile; Kelsang Dorjee Aukatsang, who was special representative of Dalai Lama to North America and served the Tibetan freedom struggle for 23 years and Penpa Tsering, former speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile who also served as the representative for the Office of Tibet in Washington. 

The Tibetan Election Commission has said that the first two candidates who get the maximum votes on January 3 will contest for the post of President during the final round on April 11. 

Among the front-runners, Ngodup has a massive following among Tibetans in Tibet and in bureaucratic circles where he has served for years in ministerial posts. Sources disclosed that he has a good understanding of situation inside Tibet, which is the need of the hour given the task before the CTA to unite Tibetans. In 1983, he is learnt to have undertaken a clandestine visit to Tibet to assess the situation and establish contacts. While Ngodup was personally not in favour of contesting elections, he was asked by the people to stand for the post of Sikyong at this critical juncture. 

Dolma is also emerging as a prominent candidate and if she is voted, she will be the first woman President of Tibetan Administration in India. 

The Tibetan government-in-exile has a party-less system of democracy where the candidates for the post of Sikyong or President are directly elected by the people. After the finalisation of candidates in the preliminary round, the Tibetan Election Commission will conduct the final round of voting on April 11. The new government in exile will then take charge in Dharamsala.