Dharamshala, 9th October: Under the supervision of the Tibetan Election Commission, the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile elected its Speaker and Deputy Speaker on the afternoon of October 8th. The Chief Election Commissioner, Pesur Wangdu Tsering, outlined the voting procedures and regulations prior to the actual voting.
The 17th Tibetan Parliament’s 45 lawmakers voted to elect a new Speaker, with two names – Khenpo Sonam Tenphel and Dolma Tsering – rising above the rest. With 23 votes, Khenpo Sonam Tenphel was elected Speaker, while Dolma Tsering garnered 22 votes.
The lawmakers elected a new Deputy Speaker after Khenpo Sonam Tenphel was elected as the new Speaker. Dolma Tsering, Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar, and Youdon Aukartsang have all been mentioned as possible Deputy Speaker candidates. Dolma Tsering has been elected as the next Deputy Speaker of the 17th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, receiving 23 votes to Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar’s 18 and Youdon’s two.
The next session to choose cabinet members under Sikyong Penpa Tsering is expected to take place on Monday, according to sources. The 17th standing committee is also expected to be appointed in the coming days. Due to the issue, the 17th TPiE has been unable to hold two of its ten scheduled sessions.
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.
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