Dharamshala (McLeod Ganj): Tibetans living in exile have geared up for the holding of 2021 general elections for electing a new Government-in-Exile.
As of Monday, a total of 79,697 Tibetans had registered themselves as voters for the upcoming general elections. The Tibetan Election Commission, here disclosed that out of the total, 55683 Tibetan voters are from inside India while 24014 are registered from outside India.
Chief election commissioner Wangdu Tsering said, ” as per the request from several Regional Commissions we have given an additional five-days period from 23rd to 28th of December 2020 for voter registration. Several people are from remote areas and they were facing problems, so keeping them in mind we have allowed the additional time for Registration.
The whole world is badly affected by the pandemic but in our case with the strong determination of regional election commissions and as well as from the public our schedule was smoothly functioning but still, we are facing some difficulties,” he added
Preparing up for the elections, some candidates in the fray have started their campaigning. Their posters can be seen on walls around the hill town here. But this time people are avoiding face to face interaction. Most of the candidates are campaigning through social media.
Namgyal Dolkar, a candidate for member of Tibetan parliament-in-exile says, “Our campaigning is going well considering the restraints that we are under because of the Chinese covid. We are trying to reach out to people online, through videos, through posters and the possibility of having a face-to-face conversation with the people has come under lock but we are using every other means that we can…”
The first phase of the general election for Sikyong (Tibetan PM in Exile) and members of the 17th Tibetan Parliament will be held on 3 January 2021 whereas the final election is scheduled to be held on 11th April.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
