Tibetans living outside Chinese control will vote on Sunday for a government-in-exile, an election of heightened significance as they brace for an inevitable future without their revered spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Election Background
The India-based Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), condemned by China as a separatist political group, is a key institution for the exiles. This is especially true after the Dalai Lama handed over political power in 2011.
Nineteen-year-old Tenzin Tsering, a first-time voter, expressed the importance of youth representation. He said in Bylakuppe, one of the largest Tibetan communities in India's southern Karnataka state, that voices are needed to reflect where the community is going, not just where it has been.
Polling Details
Polling will take place in 27 countries, excluding China. The 91,000 registered voters include Buddhist monks in the high Himalayas, political exiles in South Asia's megacities, and refugees in Australia, Europe, and North America.
The 90-year-old Dalai Lama, based in India since fleeing Lhasa after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959, insists he has many more years to live. However, supporters are acutely aware that China said last year it must approve the Buddhist leader's eventual successor. The Dalai Lama says only his India-based office has that right.
Governance Structure
The five-year parliament, which sits twice a year, has 45 members from across the world: 30 representing three traditional provinces, 10 representing five religious traditions, and five representing the diaspora. Headquartered in Dharamsala, northern India, it functions as a representative body for an estimated 150,000 Tibetans living in exile worldwide.
The government's leader, or sikyong, Penpa Tsering, was elected for a second term on February 1, after taking 61 percent in the preliminary round, a high enough threshold to win outright. Tsering, like the government, does not seek full independence for Tibet, in line with the Dalai Lama's long-standing Middle Way policy seeking autonomy.
