In the second part of the seventh day of the ongoing budget session of the Tibetan parliament in exile, the members of the parliament voted in favour of the female kalon nomination presented by the Cabinet. The election of the new kalon (Minister) entered a secret voting in the parliament leading to nomination securing a comfortable majority votes in approval.
The president of Central Tibetan Administration, Dr. Lobsang Sangay introduced Dr. Pema Yangchen, a former teacher of the TCV School as well as the former Vice Principal of The Dalai Lama Institute of Higher Studies in Bangalore. President Sangay informing his candidate was also awarded the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation award for her research on Teacher Learning in a Tibetan School in Exile: A Community of Practice Perspective in 2011.
Though President informed that Dr. Pema Yangchen who has around twenty years experience and expertise in the field of education, is a very suitable candidate as the Kalon of Department of Education, when a fellow parliamentarian opposed against the nomination, the speaker called for a secret vote to decide the approval of Dr. Yangchen’s nomination.
Dr. Pema Yangchen presently residing in Victoria, Canada was approved by the parliament with 26 votes in her favour and 15 votes against the nomination. The parliament congratulated for the successful election of the new and only female kalon in the present kashag.