The Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama has advised the Tibetan parliamentarians to swear in as per the charter. As the elected members of the 17th members of the Tibetan parliament in exile are stuck in a deadlock, in response to a request for guidance from His Holiness, the parliamentarians have been advised to ensure swearing-in as per the charter.
Following the announcement of lists of elected members of the 17th Tibetan parliament in Exile in May this year, while 21 of them took oath from the interim speaker as the charter, 22 of them took oath in front of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s portrait and the charter, in protest of against the Chief Justice commissioners who ever impeached by the 16th parliament.
This led to a stalemate at the beginning of the new parliament sessions which requires at least three fourth of the total number of parliamentarians to hold a session. With the stalemate spanning for more than three months, the elected members held informal discussions in late September this year, leading to the decision to seek guidance from His Holiness.
In the response from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, he has expressed his disappointment over the situation and stated that it must have disappointed Tibetans inside Tibet as well. He has stressed the process of development of the democratic system of the exile Tibetan administration and urged on resolving all issues through systemic definitions found in the charter.
His Holiness has advised that it is important for all members to take their oaths through a process defined in the charter and if it fails to happen, the Election Commission should take measures as per the law to ensure that.
Tibetan Supreme Justice Commission in August 2020 directed the standing committee of Tibetan Parliament in Exile to withdraw the decision to postpone the scheduled 9th parliament sessions for September 2020 till March 2021 owing to the situation of the Coronavirus pandemic. It also directed them to make relative efforts to hold the scheduled parliament sessions.
This situation led to a collision of contesting the legality of respective decisions. When the speaker-led TPiE denied complying with the TSJC, the latter announced a penalty of suspending the voting rights of the 11 standing committee members of TPiE for six months. However, when the parliament sessions convened in late March this year, the committee brought the motion to impeach all three judges to protect the charter. 31 out of 41 present at the session on March 25 voted in favour of impeachment.
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