Publications

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Racial Discrimination in Tibet (2000)

Discrimination in Public Representation

Corrupt and Farcical Elections

According to Article 21 (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR),

"The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures."

Leaving aside the issue that the will of the Tibetan people has never, and probably will never be the basis of the authority of government in Chinese-occupied Tibet, the notion of "genuine" elections - at any level - has for a long time been dispelled by refugee testimonies. Despite guarantees in the Chinese constitution that anyone over 18, "regardless of nationality", can vote and stand for election, Tibetans unanimously report that elections are mere puppet shows attempting to legitimize Chinese claims that Tibetans enjoy democratic rights and autonomy. Candidates who are not directly selected by the government are rigorously screened to ensure that they are compliant with communist policies, so that even if the rules of a secret vote are obeyed - which they rarely are - the result will not affect the strength of communist rule. As the Alliance for Research in Tibet found,

"While elections do occur, candidates are carefully vetted if not actually selected by Party organs. There is no opposition to Party principle or policy. Refusal to tolerate opposition candidates or parties is based on the premise that they are anti-China, therefore legally and logically unqualified to represent Chinese people. The "autonomous" Tibetan lives at the bottom of a long ladder of Chinese government and Party institutions."

39 year-old Dorje Tongmey experienced "elections" in both Kandze "TAP" in Sichuan Province and Lhasa, where he lived for 17 years before escaping to India in February 2000. "Tibetans have very little opportunity to participate in government decisions at any level. Elections are pointless pieces of propaganda - democratic facades that hide an internal selection process. Leaders and officials are always elected from the top down: Prefecture officials will appoint those in County administration, and they in turn will choose those to run the township. We are called upon to "vote" during these proceedings, but as the candidates are all chosen by the Party, whatever we do makes no difference - the decisions have already been made. Even if, for some strange reason, an independent candidate was allowed to stand against a Party candidate in a genuine election, there are more Chinese than Tibetans in most areas now, so the result would only preserve the status quo."

Soepa from Pelbar County in Chamdo Prefecture fled Tibet in October 1999. "There was a voting system in my village, but it was always predetermined. The Chinese authorities would select only those that were completely loyal to the Communist Party as candidates, so there was no point in us 'voting'. We had to vote anyway however, because we were told that if we didn't we would be punished."

41 year-old Thupten from Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture confirmed this threat of punishment. "The people in my area were very discontent when an election was announced. We knew that the candidates selected had already been carefully vetted by higher Chinese officials, and that our "voting" was mere lip-service to Chinese claims of democracy, but we did it anyway. The officials made sure that we attended the election and that no-one spoke out against the process. If we had tried to complain, I"m sure we would have been arrested."

23 year-old Kunsang Gyal from Tsonub "TAP" in Qinghai Province arrived in exile in August 1999. "All candidates in county elections were pre-determined by the higher prefecture leaders. Their names would only be announced a few hours before the actual election, so we didn't really know who or what we were voting for - only that they would be loyal to the "great motherland". Candidates were nearly always Chinese, because the authorities told us that Tibetans "were not experienced or intelligent enough to lead the people forward". So in villages where almost all inhabitants were Tibetan, the local officials would be Chinese. Furthermore, we were told that it would be useless to complain, because according to "election law", no person has the authority to dismiss a county leader who has been elected by the People's Congress of that county. However, this seemed to be true only for the Chinese leaders, as there were a number of elected Tibetan officials in my area removed by the prefectural authorities for no apparent reason. They were then replaced by Chinese."