Tibet Sun Newsroom
MCLEOD GANJ, India, 22 March 2016
The Election Commission of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has ordered a recount of the votes in Australia and New Zealand after it was found that the results were declared not according to the election rules.
A letter has been sent to all the local election commissions in Australia and New Zealand by the office of the Chief Election Commission, asking them to recount the votes and announce the results again according to the election rules.
“The results declared and circulated in the social networking sites were without the seal and signatures of the local election commissions and observers,” Sonam Choephel Shosur, the Chief Election Commissioner of the CTA, said in the letter.
“Apparently the counting has been done by other than the local election commission staff members. We have ordered recounting according to the rules at all the places in Australia and New Zealand.”
The letter further stated that the Election Commission will not accept the results that has been declared, and has asked the local Election Commission to submit a report why the counting and the declarations did not follow the election rules.
The re-counting is not likely to change the result itself, but the papers will bear signatures of the local Election Commission and observers and the seal of the election office.
There are about 2,000 Tibetans living in Australia, and for the first time they will have a representative in the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile in Dharamshala. The representative will also cover Tibetans in New Zealand, Japan, Taiwan, and other Asian countries other than India, Nepal and Bhutan.
About 1,000 Tibetans in Australia have cast their votes to elect a Sikyong (Prime Minister) and a representative in the Tibetan exile Parliament in the final round of polling.
This is to correct the above statement that there are 2,000 Tibetans in Australia. Australia has in fact not more than 1,200 Tibetans living in Australia. Tibetans who have arrived in Australia before 1997 were Buddhist teachers, translators, and Tibetan Government officials. The Australian Government accepted the first batch of Tibetans on humanitarian basis in 1997. Ever since, The exile Government has been sending groups of dozen or so people occasionally when the Government here was willing to accept them. As a result there are not many Tibetans who have been able to come here. The bulk of Tibetans who have come here are living in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne. However, they are spread across Australia including Perth, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania.