Lobsang Sangay Elected Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile

Lobsang Sangay was on 27 April 2011 elected Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan Government-in-exile. He would take over the political duties relinquished by spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Sangay got 55 per cent votes out of 49189 votes. He defeated his nearest rival Tethong Tenzin Namgyal by 8646 votes.

As many as 83399 exiled Tibetan settled in India, Bhutan, Nepal, Australia, United States, Japan, Russia and other countries exercised their franchise to elect the Prime Minister and 43 members of Tibetan Parliament-in-exile. The tenure of the newly elected Prime Minister would be five years. 

  
China on 28 April 2011 denounced the election of Lobsang Sangay as the new Prime Minister of Tibetan Government-in-Exile. China termed it a mere political show by the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama a Nobel peace prize winner is both the spiritual and the political head of the Tibet. He founded a government-in-exile after fleeing to India in 1959. Earlier, he had led a failed uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet.

Dalai Lama on 10 March 2011 announced his decision to step down as political head of Tibetan government-in-exile. However, Dalai Lama continues to be the spiritual head of the Tibetan community. As a matter of fact, he did not exercise his franchise in the election. The current Prime Minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche has already served two terms and the Tibetan charter bars any individual from holding the office for more than that period.

The three candidates who contested the election for the post of the Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile which is known as Kalon Tripa in Tibetan language, are Lobsang Sangay, Tenzin Namgyal Tethong and Tashi Wangdi.

Tashi Wangdi was the Dalai Lama’s representative in Brussels, New York and New Delhi.
There are more than 140000 exiled Tibetans and over one lakh are settled in different parts of India.The Tibetan government in exile is not recognized by any country in the world, including India.