Himalayan News Service

Dharamsala, March 6:

Tibetans living here in self-imposed exile have urged political parties gearing for elections in India, the United States and Taiwan to raise the Tibet issue.

'We need more constructive support from the political parties to achieve our objective of independance,' the National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT) president Acharya Yeshi Phuntsok said here yesterday.

The NDPT has also appealed to political parties in these countries 'to include the Tibet issue in their party manifestos'.

India is home to the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who has his government-in-exile here in Himachal Pradesh, as well as some 100,000 Tibetan exiles.

Altogether 73 leaders around the world face the big election test this year.

Almost all major democracies barring Britain will go to the polls in 2004 in what is one of the politically busiest years in recent times.

Elections of various kinds are on the cards in the US, Russia, France, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Austria, Greece and South Africa to name just a few. Some 13,000 lawmakers are to be elected across the world.

As many as 17 countries including India, Indonesia, Algeria, Austria, Greece and South Korea will conduct elections between April and June.

Later in the year will come the high-profile presidential elections in the US, apart from polling in South Africa, Mongolia, Lebanon, Mauritius, France, Australia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Taiwan and Sudan.