© AP / Ashwini Bhatia
Tibetan prime ministerial candidate Lobsang Sengay, gestures as he talks to the Associated Press in the backdrop of a Tibetan flag in Dharmsala, India, March 20, 2011.
A Harvard legal scholar has been elected the next prime minister of Tibet's government-in-exile, officials announced Wednesday, paving the way for new leadership in the Tibetan community as the Dalai Lama gives up political power.
Lobsang Sangay, 43, a lawyer and scholar who has spent years studying international law and conflict resolution, won with 55 percent of the votes cast by tens of thousands of Tibetans around the world, chief election commissioner Jamphel Choesang said in the north Indian town of Dharmsala, where the exile government is based.
"I view my election as an affirmation of the far-sighted policies of His Holiness the Dalai Lama," he said in a statement on the exile government's website, calling on people to "join me in our common cause to alleviate the suffering of Tibetans in occupied Tibet."
While the government-in-exile has existed for decades, it has long been seen as a powerless reflection of the wishes of the Dalai Lama, the exiled 75-year-old Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader worshipped as a near-deity by many followers.
