Around 90,000 Tibetans vote to elect leader, parliament-in-exile

Around 90,000 Tibetans went to polls around the world Sunday to elect a leader and members of the parliamentinexile, which has its headquarters in the northern Indian region where the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama resides, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) told EFE.

“We have registered about 90,000 voters at 60 polling stations around the world, the majority in India, Nepal and Bhutan, but also in Australia, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and in America,” said Tenzin Norbu, deputy secretary of the Election Commission of the CTA, or the governmentinexile, based in Dharamsala, India.

Booths will be open from 9an to 5pm local time of each country and the results will be announced Monday, although they will not be officialized until Mar. 27 or 28, Norbu explained.

He said the turnout for the vote was large after polls opened today in Dharamsala, home to the largest number of exiled Tibetans nearly 128,000 in the world, according to the governmentinexile, which no country recognizes.

Running for the position of ‘Sikyong’, or political leader, is Lobsang Sangay, who is hoping for reelection and has as his rival Parliament Speaker Penpa Tsering.

They are both supporters of the ‘halfway approach’ or dialogue process with the Chinese government for an autonomy for Tibet without separating from China.

Chinese occupation of Tibet started in 1950 when the People’s Liberation Army invaded it and since then Tibetans have been fighting for freedom from the Communist rule.