Voting begins for final phase of elections for Sikyong, Tibetan Parliament in-exile

Voting began on Sunday for the final phase of elections for Sikyong/ President of Central Tibetan administration and 45 members of Tibetan Parliament in exile.

Penpa Tsering and Aukatsang Kelsang Dorjee are the two candidates for the President of Central Tibetan Administration of Tibetan Government-in-exile.

During the first phase of elections, there were eight candidates for Sikyong/ President in which Penpa Tsering secured the highest 24,488 votes and Aukatsang Kelsang Dorjee secured the second-highest 14,544 votes.

"I am very happy to say that in around 26 countries the Tibetans in-exile are franchising their votes... the total number of the voter is 83,079. We do have two kinds of elections one is for the Presidential election of the Central Tibetan Administration and the second one is Parliamentary. There are two nominees for President and 95 candidates for the 45 parliamentary seats. We are going to declare the results on May 14th," said Wangdu Tsering, the Chief Election Commissioner of the Tibetan Election Commission.

"I feel blessed that I can vote over here but inside Tibet, they cannot have any democratic rights or human rights, therefore, I feel bad for them and I pray for them. China will have to give our country back and they have to give the human rights to the Tibetans as they are suffering a lot," said Tenzin Phurbu, a Tibetan voter.

Tibet is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party government based in Beijing, with local decision-making power concentrated in the hands of Chinese party officials.

Tibet was a sovereign state before China's invasion in 1950 when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) entered northern Tibet.

( With inputs from ANI )