Penpa Tsering, 53, has been elected Sikyong or President of the Dharamshala-based Tibetan government-in-exile, officially called the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
According to the data released by the Tibetan chief election commissioner Wangdu Tsering, the former speaker of Tibet’s parliament in Exile, Tsering defeated Aukatsang Kelsang Dorjee by 5,417 votes. Dorjee, a former representative of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, polled 28,907 votes.
The first round of the election was held on January 3. Tsering had led the first round by polling 24,488 votes. Dorjee had polled 14,544 votes. There were eight candidates in the fray for the post of Sikyong in the first round of which Tsering and Dorjee made it to the second round.
More than 83,000 Tibetans living in 26 countries participated in the third and final round of voting for the election to the post of Sikyong on April 11.
The 45 new members of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile will include 10 members representing each of Tibet’s three traditional provinces—U-tsang, Kham, and Amdo—and two representatives from each of Tibet’s four major schools of Buddhism and pre-Buddhist Bon religion.
There are around 1.3 lakh Tibetans in India and across the world.
