Dharamsala, April 27 (IANS) Lobsang Sangay, a 42-year-old Tibetan born in India but educated and settled in the US, was Wednesday named the new Kalon Tripa, or the community's prime minister-in-exile.
A senior fellow of Harvard Law School, Sangay has been chosen in the third direct election for the Kalon Tripa - the incumbent Samdhong Rinpoche was chosen twice.
Sangay's five-year stint is expected to be full of challenges, with the Tibetan parliament giving a nod to the transfer of political power from spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to the newly elected political leader.
Election official Jamphel Choesang told IANS here that Sangay polled 27,051 votes. "Sangay got 55 percent of the total votes in the election held March 20," he said.
Choesang said the newly elected prime minister would take oath only after the tenure of the present cabinet expires in August.
Sangay was born in 1968 in exile in India. He is often quoted as saying: "India is my second home. I have never been to my first home (Tibet)."
His father, who was settled in a village near Darjeeling, fled Tibet in 1959 along with the Dalai Lama.