New Tibetan exile leader elected
A Harvard University academic was elected prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile and will take on the 'political' role previously played by the Dalai Lama.
The elections were held in March and the result announced on Wednesday in Dharamsala, India, where the Tibetan government-in-exile is based.
Lobsang Sangay won 55% of the votes cast by Tibetans around the world, defeating two other candidates - Tenzin Tethong and Tashi Wangdi.
Sangay must now assume the political functions of the Dalai Lama, who said in March he wanted to devolve this responsibility to an elected official while retaining his role as Tibetan spiritual leader.
"The Election Commission of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has declared Dr Lobsang Sangay as the third kalon tripa," Election Commissioner Jampal Thosang announced, using the Tibetan term for prime minister.
Almost 83,400 Tibetan exiles were eligible to vote and more than 49,000 ballots were cast.
The 42-year-old winner is an Indian-born legal expert who has never lived in Tibet. His father fled Tibet in 1959, the same year as the Dalai Lama.
Tenzin Tethong, a former representative of the Dalai Lama in the US, got 37.4% of the vote and Tashi Wangdi, a government-in-exile bureaucrat, received 6.4%.
Sangay says he will move to Dharamsala to serve as prime minister and that he supports the Dalai Lama's stance on ties with China.
"What His Holiness stands for is the 'Middle Way', which is genuine autonomy within China or within the framework of the Chinese constitution," he told the
"If Tibetans are granted genuine autonomy then his Holiness the Dalai Lama said he is willing to accept Tibet as part of China."
