President Sangay signs Electoral Amendments into law
DHARAMSALA, Oct 3: The President of the Central Tibetan Administration Dr Lobsang Sangay today signed into law the amended provisions of the Rules and Regulations of Electoral System.
The amended provisions of the Tibetan Charter’s Rules and Regulations of Electoral System was passed by the Tibetan Parliament in Exile in the recently concluded sixth session of the 16th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile as it secured the required 2/3rd majority vote of the house.
President Sangay signed into law the amendment bill of the Tibetan Charter’s Clause (VII) of Article 24 on the Rules and Regulations of Electoral System and clause (iv) Article 67 entitled, ‘Process of Electing Sikyong in the Preliminary and Final Election’ under ‘Rules and Regulation of Electoral System’ at a press conference held earlier today at the Kashag Secretariat near here as the Secretary of the Tibetan Parliament in exile handed him the Electoral Amendments to be signed into law.
The new law of the Tibetan Charter’s Rules and Regulations of Electoral System includes; to bar all regional associations, religious sects and NGOs from endorsing candidates for Sikyong(President) and Members of the Parliament, mandating a Sikyong candidate who secures more than 60% of the votes in the preliminary election to be declared Sikyong elected without having to go through the final election and declaration of at least two Sikyong candidates in the final election by the Election Commission and in the eventuality of there being only one candidate, the lone Sikyong candidate to secure a minimum of 51% of the votes in the primary election to be declared the winning candidate, failure to which the entire election will be held again.
“We believe in the culture, community and consensus as laid out in the Buddhist Vinaya as much as we can. So true to form this is I think if not the only at least very few partyless democracy which is Tibetan Buddhists contribution to democracy,” President Sangay said after signing the law lauding the Tibetan Non-partisan democracy.
With the amended laws, the time frame of the Tibetan electoral process which spans over two hundred days has now been shortened to less than hundred days. The next Tibetan election will be held in 2021.
