Some 91,000 Tibetan voters are called to the polls on Sunday to elect their Parliament. The vote is taking place in 27 countries and China is not one of them. The elections come amid uncertainty over the future of the Tibetan community, whose spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is 90 years old.

Published on: 04/26/2026 - 08:35 Modified on: 04/26/2026 - 12:26

Tibetans outside China vote on Sunday April 26 to choose their Parliament in exile, at a time when they are questioning the future of their community whose spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, is 90 years old.

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), based in India, has been the key institution for Tibetans in exile, particularly since 2011, when the Dalai Lama renounced any political role in favor of the elected government.

“Our vote counts,” said Tenzin Tsering, 19, who is voting for the first time and hopes to push for young people to be more represented. “We need voices that reflect where our community is going, not just where they come from,” he said in Bylakuppe, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, home to one of the largest Tibetan communities outside the Himalayan plateau.

The CTA has 45 parliamentarians – 30 representing the three traditional Tibetan provinces, ten representing the community's five main religious traditions and five representing the rest of the diaspora.

91,000 registered voters

Based in Dharamsala, in northern India, it represents the 150,000 Tibetans living in exile around the world.

Voting is taking place in 27 countries – and China is not one of them.

Of the approximately 91,000 registered voters, more than half live in India, Nepal or Bhutan, while the rest are scattered around the world, mainly in the United States and Europe. They represent a small fraction of the six million Tibetans recorded in the world.

The Dalai Lama, based in India since his flight from Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, after the crushing of an uprising by Chinese troops in 1959, says he still has many years to live and confirmed that his successor would be chosen upon his death according to tradition, against the desire of the Beijing authorities to impose their own candidate.

“A separatist political group”, according to Beijing

China, a communist and atheist country, insisted last year that it must approve the Buddhist leader's possible successor.

Also read: Succession of the Dalai Lama: when atheist China gets involved in reincarnation

"The so-called 'Tibetan government in exile' is nothing more than a separatist political group," his foreign ministry scoffed in a written response to AFP in February.

The first round, which took place on February 1, made it possible to choose the candidates; the second, which takes place on Sunday, must decide between them. And the results are to be announced on May 13.

The "sikyong" (leader) of the government, Penpa Tsering, was elected for a second term in the first round in February by gathering 61% of the votes, a threshold high enough to win straight away.

Penpa Tsering, like the government, is not calling for full independence for Tibet, in line with the Dalai Lama's long-standing "middle way" policy of autonomy.

With AFP

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