Tibetans around the world began a global election on Sunday to choose a parliament and political leadership for the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
In the Himalayas, as well as Australia, Europe and North America, voting is taking place in 27 countries. The polls are notably absent from China, which controls Tibet and rejects the legitimacy of the Tibetan political movement in exile.
“Elections show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said Gyaltsen Chokye, a 33-year-old candidate based in Dharamsala, the Indian hill town that hosts the headquarters of the CTA.
The vote has drawn condemnation from Beijing. China, which sent troops into Tibet in 1950 and considers it an inseparable part of its territory, dismissed the elections outright. “The so-called ‘Tibetan government-in-exile’ is nothing but a separatist political group,” China’s foreign ministry told AFP.
But that is not deterring the approximately 91,000 registered voters, who are taking part in the election.
“These elections show that political agency exists even without a state, especially when democratic participation is denied inside Tibet,” said Sonam Palmo, a researcher at the University of Zurich who helps run Smartvote Tibet, a platform designed to assist diaspora voters.
Sunday’s vote selects candidates for a final round scheduled for 26 April, with results due on 13 May.
“The election forms a major counter to China’s autocratic one-party rule,” said Australia-based lawmaker Doring Tenzin Phuntsok, who is campaigning for re-election. “It is part of the continual process of the freedom struggle.”
More than half of registered voters, around 56,000, live in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The remaining 34,000 are spread across the global diaspora, including roughly 12,000 in North America and around 8,000 in Europe, in cities such as Paris, Geneva, Zurich and London.
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