Final Results of Sikyong and Tibetan Parliamentary Elections Declared

DHARAMSHALA: Mr Sonam Choephel Shosur, the chief election commissioner, accompanied by Ven Tempa Tashi and Mr Tenzin Choephel, the two additional election commissioners, declared the consolidated results of the final Tibetan general election today.

Speaking at the press conference, Mr Sonam Choephel Shosur said: “Although there are approximately 150,000 Tibetans in exile, a total of 90,377 Tibetans registered for the final election. However, only 59,353 people actually turned up to vote in the final Sikyong elections and 58,615 turned up to vote in the final elections of the 16th Tibetan Parliament.”

“Out of the total 59,353 actual voters in the Sikyong election, 613 votes were disqualified while 591 votes from the total of 58,615 actual votes cast for the Tibetan parliamentary election were disqualified,” he added.

Announcing Dr Lobsang Sangay as the winner of the final Sikyong elections, he said: “As per article 67(5) of the electoral rules and regulation, the Sikyong candidate with the largest number of secret ballots cast by the public will be declared the winner.”

“Therefore, Dr Lobsang Sangay, the incumbent Sikyong, is re-elected as the Sikyong for another five year term. Dr Lobsang Sangay has got a total of 33,876 votes (57.08 % of the total vote share) as against the 24,864 votes (41.89% of the total vote share) in the name of Mr Penpa Tsering, the Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament,” he explained.

“Similarly, as per article 51(1) of the electoral rules and regulation, a total of 45 members are elected for the 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile. The 45-member Tibetan Parliament is composed of 10 members each from the three traditional provinces of Tibet; two each from the five religious constituencies, two each from the Tibetan communities in North America and Europe and one from the Tibetan community in Australasia (excluding India, Nepal and Bhutan),” he noted.

“The Election Commission heartily congratulates the winners of both the Sikyong and Tibetan Parliamentary election,” the election commissioner said.

Click here for the results of the final Sikyong and Tibetan Parliamentary election.

Brief biography of the two final Sikyong candidates

1. Dr Lobsang Sangay (incumbent Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration)

Dr. Lobsang Sangay was born and grew up in a Tibetan settlement near Darjeeling, where he attended the Central School for Tibetans. He completed his B.A. (Honors) and LLB degrees from Delhi University. In 1992, he was elected as the youngest executive member of the Tibetan Youth Congress (CENTREX).In 1996, as a Fulbright Scholar, he obtained Masters degree and in 2004, S.J.D, the first Tibetan ever to receive such a degree from Harvard Law School and his dissertation, Democracy in Distress: Is Exile Polity a Remedy? A Case Study of Tibet’s Government-in-exile was awarded the Yong K. Kim’ 95 Prize. In 2005, he was appointed as a research fellow and promoted to senior fellow till early 2011.Dr. Sangay is an expert on International Human Rights Law, Democratic Constitutionalism, and Conflict Resolution. He has spoken in hundreds of seminars around the world. He organized seven major conferences among Chinese, Tibetan, Indian and Western scholars including two unprecedented meeting between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Chinese scholars in 2003 and 2009 at Harvard University.In 2007, he was selected as one of the twenty-four Young Leaders of Asia by the Asia Society and a delegate to the World Justice Forum in Vienna, Austria, where top legal experts and judges from around the world congregated.In 2011, he was elected to the post of Kalon Tripa in an unprecedented competitive democratic election in the Tibetan diaspora.On August 8, 2011, during the swearing–in ceremony of the Kalon Tripa, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, “When I was young, an elderly regent Takdrag Rinpoche handed over Sikyong (political leadership) to me, and today I am handing over Sikyong to young Lobsang Sangay… In doing this I have fulfilled my long-cherished goal.”

2. Mr Penpa Tsering (Speaker of the 15th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile)Penpa Tsering was born in 1967 at Bylakuppee, south India and is a Do-mey member of the Tibetan Parliament. He studied at the Central School for Tibetans, Bylakuppe and topped the merit list in Class XII. He graduated with Economics Major from the Madras Christian College, Chennai. His work experience includes running a private export expertise and a restaurant.

During his student days, he served as the General Secretary of both the Tibetan Freedom Movement and Nigerian Tibet Friendship Association. Later he served as the General Secretary of the Central Executive Committee of Do-mey. He then worked as the Executive Director at the Tibetan Parliamentary and Research Centre (TPPRC) at New Delhi from 2001-2008 before being sworn in as the speaker of the 14th parliament in 2008.

He was earlier elected to the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth Tibetan Parliament-in-exile. He was elected as the Speaker of the fourteenth Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile with Mr Karma Choephel on 31 May 2006. He got re-elected to the Fifteenth Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile again with Speaker’s post in 2011.