By Tenzin Dharpo and Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Jan. 4: 192 Tibetans from the polling station at camp no. 8 in Ladakh’s Sonamling Tibetan settlement had to cast their ballots again on Sunday after an incident of vote tampering and interference with the election process.
An official at the polling booth in Agling camp who was helping an illiterate voter is accused of writing the name of another candidate as supposed to the one selected by the voter. The official appointed by the regional Election Commissioner, a teacher at TCV school in Ladakh, was placed to assist elderly and illiterate Tibetans cast their ballots.
The irregularity was reported by the camp leader who caught the accused. The central Election Commission confirmed the incident and said that the matter was reported around 2 pm on Sunday, which was followed by directives to immediately stop the process. The regional commission cancelled all the 192 votes that had been cast till then and began conducting a recast of ballots that ended around 8 in the night on Sunday. The EC said the person at fault will be dealt later.
Sonamling’s Chief Representative Officer Tsetan Wangchuk in a self-recorded video said that the incident has not affected the overall integrity of the ballots and that accused cited “miscommunication” between the voter and himself for the wrong name on the ballot. “After careful deliberation with members of the local EC, the teacher from TCV expressed regret and prostrated three times before the portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” the CRO said.
Ladakh is home to one of the largest Tibetan settlement in exile. Close to 4000 people registered for the preliminary elections of 2021 and less than 2000 voted on Sunday, a reliable source told Phayul on the condition of anonymity.
Around 80,000 Tibetans from over 30 countries registered to vote for the preliminary round of the 2021 presidential and parliamentary elections held on 3rd January. The final round will be help on April 11 whereby Tibetans in exile will choose the next batch of lawmakers and their next Sikyong, the head of the Tibetan polity.
The one that deliberately wrote the wrong name should be named, I don’t care how many times he prostrated to whoever, that isn’t adequate punishment. Name him, he is a full grown man, if he did it intentionally he deserves to be named and we deserve to know who he is.