All seven Kalon nominations approved by 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile
By Lobsang Tenchoe
DHARAMSALA, JUN 1: The newly elected 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile (TPIE) today commenced its first session to be held over June 1-3 and gave their approval for the members of the 15th Kashag (Tibetan cabinet) nominated by Sikyong Sangay.
Declaring the commencement of the first session of the 16th TPIE, the Speaker of the House Ven Khenpo Sonam Tenphel extended his warm wishes to the newly elected Tibetan legislators.
“The 16th Tibetan parliamentarians comprises of good blend of old and new members as well as modern education and traditional values,” the speaker of the house remarked and urged the parliamentarians to respect each other’s opinions and to refrain from making divisive remarks for the sake of the unity of the Tibetan community.
Sikyong Sangay greeted the legislators and assured absolute cooperation from his new cabinet in endeavors to strengthen the Tibetan movement and to resolve the Tibet issue.
The legislators expressed their solidarity with the suffering of the Tibetans inside Tibet and passed three resolutions of mourning and four resolutions of solidarity with the Tibetans inside Tibet.
As Sikyong Sangay announced his first nominee for the members of the 15th Kashag, a legislator objected to the nominee saying that if no objections are made to Sikyong’s nominees, the Tibetan public will hold the members of the Parliament responsible if any untoward incidents happen in the future.
In similar vein, another member of the Parliament further provided objections to all the nominees announced by the Sikyong in order to make sure that the public doesn’t blame the legislature if things turn bad in the future, necessitating an approval by majority vote for all the seven nominees.
The members who objected to the nominations were referring to incidents of public outrage when two Kalons from the 14th Kashag led by Sikyong Sangay resigned before the completion of their terms; they were approved without any objection in the Parliament.
Later all the nominees were approved by a majority vote by the Tibetan legislators.
The details of the vote are as follows:
Mr Ngodup Tsering, former Education Kalon in the 14th Kashag received 29 approval votes.
Ven Karma Gelek Yuthok, former Secretary of the Kashag Secretariat received 37 approval votes.
Sonam Topgyal Khorlatsang, former Secretary of Home Department received 38 approval votes.
Phagpa Tsering, former Secretary of Department of Security received 31 approval votes.
Karma Yeshi, former member of Tibetan Parliament received 26 approval votes.
Choekyong Wangchuk, former member of Tibetan Parliament received 24 approval votes.
Sharling Dadon, an incumbent member of the parliament received 25 approval votes.
Tenzin Jamyang who tops the waiting list of the candidates from U-Tsang constituency with 8815 votes will now become U-tsang legislator since Sharling Dadon has been approved to become a Kalon( Cabinet members).
