Students for a Free Tibet : Press Statement: Tibetans Condemn Nepal Government for Confiscating Exile Election Ballots

Students for a Free Tibet : Press Statement: Tibetans Condemn Nepal Government for Confiscating Exile Election Ballots: "Home » Newsroom » Press Releases

For Immediate Release: October 4th, 2010

Press Statement: Tibetans Condemn Nepal Government for Confiscating Exile Election Ballots

Police in Nepal yesterday confiscated boxes holding thousands of ballots cast by Tibetans participating in the preliminary round of international elections to nominate candidates to the office of Prime Minister and Parliament of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Nepali authorities were informed about the election in advance and raised no objections. The electoral process was running smoothly until armed police stormed polling stations in the Kathmandu Valley around 4pm local time and confiscated the ballot boxes. (Radio Free Asia footage of armed Nepali police seizing ballot boxes can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4fI58wpV6o).

We condemn this heinous act of repression by the Nepali authorities which tramples on the Tibetan people’s democratic right to freely elect their political leadership. Tibetans in Nepal have for decades participated, unimpeded, in the exile Tibetan democratic process and should be allowed to continue doing so. Under the leadership of the Dalai Lama, Tibetans have established a democratic system in exile that represents their commitment to upholding the democratic rights and freedoms denied to Tibetans living in Chinese-occupied Tibet.

It is widely known that the Chinese government is exerting increasing pressure on the government of Nepal to crack down on the political activities of Tibetans and to forcibly repatriate those who escape across the border

- 已使用 Google 工具列寄出"