Harvard scholar Lobsang Sangay was on Wednesday elected Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile and will take over the political duties relinquished by spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Mr Sangay, 43, polled 55 per cent votes out of 49189, defeating his nearest rival Tethong Tenzin Namgyal by 8,646 votes, election commissioner Jampal Chosang announced here. Sangay is a research fellow at the Harvard Law School.
Tethong Tenzin Namgyal, a Stanford scholar, polled 18,405 votes while Tashi Wangdi, the Dalai Lama’s representative in Brussels, New York and New Delhi, finished third.
The election was held on March 20.
Fifty-nine per cent votes were cast by the electoral college comprising over 83,000 Tibetans in exile in India, the US, European countries, Bhutan, Nepal, Russia and Japan among others.
Under Chinese pressure, voting was not allowed by authorities in Nepal and Bhutan. —PTI