Swiss invention helps Tibet’s diaspora make election choices

On February 1, 2026, Buddhist monks walk past the Tibetan National Martyrs’ Memorial during an election in Dharamsala (India), the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Sanjay Baid / AFP

The online voting advice tool Smartvote Tibet was used 13,000 times during the 2026 elections for the Tibetan parliament in exile – equivalent to more than a fifth of the votes cast. Swiss-Tibetan political scientist Palmo Brunner explains why the initiative matters, and what happened when it was hit by a cyberattack at a crucial moment.

Smartvote was originally developed in Switzerland to help voters make their electoral choices. Today, the tool and similar online voting advice apps are used in many democracies around the world, including in one democracy without a country: the Tibetan exile community.

In 2026, Smartvote Tibet was used for the second time. It generated around 13,000 voting recommendations. That is a significant number: some 51,000 Tibetans in exile cast their ballots in the parliamentary primaries in February, while just over 41,000 voted in the main elections two months later. The 13,000 Smartvote users cannot, however, be equated directly with 13,000 voters. Anyone, whether eligible to vote or not, can complete the questionnaire more than once.

“Most of the traffic came from the main regions where Tibetans in the diaspora live: India, Europe and North America,” says the Swiss-Tibetan political scientist Palmo Brunner, who is part of the volunteer team behind Smartvote Tibet.

Users complete a questionnaire on political issues and receive an overview showing how closely each candidate’s positions match their own. That is the principle behind Smartvote. Brunner says the aim is to “contribute to informed decision-making” while encouraging as many Tibetans in exile as possible to vote.

This also strengthens the system’s legitimacy. “Political participation is important to us, but so is strengthening democratic institutions – and the two are connected.”

On May 27 2026, the Dalai Lama attended the swearing-in ceremony in Dharamsala marking the start of Penpa Tsering’s second term as Sikyong. The Sikyong is the head of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. Sanjay Baid / AFP

Chinese repression

Around 150,000 Tibetans live in exile. They can register to vote and, every five years, elect members of the Tibetan parliament in exile as well as the Sikyong, the head of the Tibetan government in exile.

The millions of Tibetans living in authoritarian China cannot take part in these elections. Repression there is considerable. According to UN human rights experts, Chinese programmes have relocated or forcibly settled around 3.36 million TibetansExternal link over the past 25 years.

The mere existence of a democratic government in exile challenges “the People’s Republic of China’s narrative”, which denies “that Tibet was once an independent state with its own legitimate government”, says Lobsang Sangay, a legal scholar who served as Sikyong from 2012 to 2021.

He describes the task of reaching and coordinating such a geographically dispersed population as a “constant logistical challenge”, requiring extensive travel.

Sangay sees the Tibetan government in exile as a model. It is, he says, “the only fully functioning and arguably the most effective government-in-exile in the contemporary world”.

But what can a government in exile actually achieve? “It works to preserve Tibetan identity and defend human rights,” Brunner says. Beyond its symbolic importance, however, it also deals with highly practical issues. “In the traditional exile settlements in India, this includes promoting Tibetan schools or funding medical treatment.”

The work of the government in exile is financed to a small extent through a voluntary tax paid by Tibetans. It depends largely on foreign assistance, particularly from the United States. This, too, was the subject of a question in the online voting tool, as some politicians want to increase contributions from Tibetans in exile in order to reduce dependence on international funding.

The Dalai Lama’s role

Even before fleeing the Chinese occupation in 1959, the Dalai Lama had begun developing his vision of a democratic Tibet. The first election for what was then a 13-member parliament was held in exile in Dharamsala, northern India, in 1960. But the democratisation of Tibetan political structures took time.

Since 2001, Tibetans in exile have directly elected their head of government. In 2011, the Dalai Lama withdrew completely from his political roles and transferred his powers to the elected leadership. Today, Tibetans elect the Sikyong every five years, alongside the Tibetan parliament in exile, which has 45 members. Two-thirds are elected by Tibetans living in India, Nepal and Bhutan, according to their province of origin in Tibet. Ten seats are reserved for the different monastic traditions. One member represents Australia and the rest of Asia, while Europe and North America each elect two representatives.

Brunner describes the development of Tibetan democracy in exile as a continuous process. “Democracies often emerge because populations demand greater political participation,” she says. “In our case, the impetus came strongly from one person who had a democratic vision: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.”

A comic strip from the *Tibetan Review* in 1990 illustrates this perfectly: in Eastern Europe, crowds on the streets are calling for democracy, whilst those in power look down on them in bewilderment. In Dharamsala, on the other hand, the Dalai Lama is calling for democracy, whilst the crowd in front of him looks on with puzzled expressions. Tibetan Review / Lobsang Gyatso

Chinese interests

When democracy is introduced from above, a society faces the challenge of developing and sustaining a lively political debate. This is particularly true in the case of Tibet, where the interests of the diaspora run counter to those of authoritarian China. There are therefore strong reasons to avoid internal dissent and polarisation.

That illustrates the delicate balance Smartvote Tibet must strike. “Conflict and diversity of opinion can invigorate democracy. But for a community in exile, they can be a major challenge because there are also strong calls – and a strong need – for cohesion and unity,” Brunner says.

The Smartvote Tibet project is therefore not uncontroversial. By setting out different political positions, it also makes lines of conflict visible. “Some people choose not to take part as a matter of principle,” Brunner says. In part because they are concerned that China could use information about politicians’ positions for its own purposes.

‘Lively democratic debate’

Sangay sees the “Tibetan experience” as an example of how “robust democratic debate and collective unity need not to be mutually exclusive” but can reinforce one another.

He therefore sees Smartvote Tibet as a “valuable initiative” because it strengthens transparency and accountability among candidates regarding their views, while helping voters make informed choices. But Sangay stresses that voters’ trust in candidates’ integrity is just as important. Initiatives designed to support informed voting should also help convey this, he says.

Around half of the candidates completed the Smartvote questionnaire in 2026. This was not automatic. It required considerable commitment from Project Democracy, the association behind Smartvote Tibet. In individual cases, someone even sat down at a computer with a candidate and went through the questionnaire step by step.

Lobsang Sangay served as Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile from 20 September 2012 to 27 May 2021. Money Sharma / AFP

While political debate in many European democracies is strongly structured around a left-right spectrum, Brunner describes different fault lines in Tibetan politics. One concerns tradition and modernity. For example, there is debate over whether contemporary Tibetan art should receive public support.

Representation is another controversial issue. “It is assumed that before long, around half of Tibetans in exile will no longer live in the traditional settlements in South Asia, but in Western countries, particularly North America,” Brunner says. So far, this demographic shift has been reflected only to a limited extent in the composition of the Tibetan parliament in exile. Smartvote Tibet also asked whether the distribution of seats in parliament should be reformed. Brunner describes the responses as “very diverse”.

ICE and a cyberattack

Smartvote Tibet has felt the financial consequences of the United States turning away from international democracy promotion. The political situation in the US also affected the 2026 Tibetan exile elections in other ways. Out of fear of immigration enforcement checks by ICE, Tibetan New Year celebrations in the US were in some cases scaled back. This removed important opportunities to raise awareness of Smartvote Tibet within the community.

Brunner describes the situation in Nepal as even more difficult. Political pressure on the Tibetan community there is particularly intense, she says, and only a small number of people took part in Smartvote Tibet.

The project also experienced a direct cyberattack. During the first round of voting, unknown actors attempted to take Smartvote Tibet offline with more than 900,000 requests a day at times.

“We will not be intimidated by that. I find it encouraging: it shows that the project has value,” Brunner says. The perpetrators could not be identified. Fortunately, the team was able to respond quickly and received support from the Swiss company Politools, which developed Smartvote.

Edited by Meret Michel. Adapted from German by Catherine Hickley/ts