Clear to run(?)

September 13, 2012Posted inDemocracy, Political parties82 Comments
About 6 weeks ago, at a press conference, the prime minister claimed that the Election Commission of Bhutan should disqualify the opposition party from taking part in the next round of elections for failing to clear its debts by the 30 June deadline. Remarkably, the prime minister also suggested that the two members in opposition should not be permitted to run in the next elections … not as members of their current party, not by starting a new party, not by joining another party. As it turned out, the election commission, having reviewed the status of the two existing…

DPT leaders

March 2, 2012Posted inPolitical parties42 Comments
Allegations that Dasho Chang Ugyen had illegally acquired 10 acres of community and government land in 1987 has drawn widespread outrage and public condemnation. The allegations come even as the Gyelpozhing land grab case is still being investigated. Both the land cases involve the senior most DPT leaders. The president, both vice presidents and several senior members of the DPT are alleged to have acquired large tracks of land illegally. Some commentators here have pointed out that the land was acquired many years ago, much before DPT was established, and that, as such, DPT should not be linked to…

Politics of LG elections

July 22, 2011Posted inLocal Government7 Comments
The local government elections are over. And the new gups – the heads of local governments – have started taking their charge throughout the country. But a dozen gewogs still don’t have gups. Goenshari in Punakha yielded a two-way tie. The election results in Bjabcho in Chukha was nullified as the winning candidate turned out to be overaged. And elections for Gongdue in Mongar could not be conducted as the lone candidate was disqualified for violating electoral laws. So elections for Goenshari’s two candidates will be repeated. And elections will be conducted in Bjabcho and Gondue. The remaining 9…

Sonam Tshering matters

March 1, 2011Posted inJustice20 Comments
Sonam’s Lawyer generated a lot of questions about why I was so interested in helping Sonam Tshering, the first Bhutanese to be detained under the Tobacco Control Act. “lindawangmo”, who was the first to question my motives, wrote: Ever since Sonam Tshering has been arrested your Blog has been full of support for him and the whole town talks about him. But what disturbed me was ppl hardly talk about the second catch, the driver, no one knows about him, does he have no relatives or friends. Are you backing sonam Tshering because he is a haap, or because…

Anticorruption

December 9, 2009Posted inGovernment
Earlier this week, the Anticorruption Commission’s annual report to the Parliament was discussed. Members of National Assembly – including the PM, cabinet minters, ruling party MPs, the opposition and the Speaker – registered their support for this important organization, and reiterated their resolve to fight corruption. The ACC’s annual report, however, was silent on one issue. The report made no mention whatsoever of the recruitment of DPT party workers by the Government. About a year ago, I had informed ACC that the unilateral appointments of the DPT party workers may be unlawful, but have received no response so far.…

Letter trail

September 3, 2009Posted inPolitical parties
Several of you (Pro Media, Zamtap, Sonam, Kudrung and Kids) have asked me to post the letter that Lyonpo Khandu and Dasho Chencho wrote soliciting financial assistance from people who are not registered members of their party. One reader, Kids, almost begged: “I sincerely request your excellency to share the letters with us.” There’s no law prohibiting me from posting the letters (one in Dzongkha, the same in English). Yet, I feel uncomfortable. So please bear with me. But, be assured that my reluctance to post the letters here is not because I don’t want to share the evidence,…

Financing political parties

July 2, 2009Posted inPolitical parties19 Comments
The Royal Audit Authority, in its annual report to the Parliament, pointed out what we all know: that both our political parties are in serious financial problems. As of 30th June 2008, PDP owed Nu 20,326,924 to the Bank of Bhutan and Nu 3,588,232 to other various other suppliers. DPT owed Nu 14,253,975 to the Bank and Nu 7,708,010 to other suppliers. Yesterday, the National Assembly spent a good hour discussing the Royal Audit Authority’s observations on the financial status of our two political parties. Actually, we did not really discuss the audit observations per se. Instead, we talked…

Financing parties

June 4, 2009Posted inPolitical parties15 Comments
About a month ago Kuensel reported that DPT MPs had insisted that "... only state funding would save them from sinking under." And quoted Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyal as saying: "Given the experience of the party so far and the need to have a responsible and respectable political system in the country, it's desirable to have state support, because the existence and functioning of spolitical parties have critical implications on the health of the state." I'm amazed that DPT politicians continue to expect state funding for their party. After all, the first session of the parliament had decided that…

Raising funds honourably

May 18, 2009Posted inLegislature, Political parties
I was surprised to learn that "... the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) leaders recently told their members of parliament (MPs) to raise money for the party." (Read the Kuensel article). This is illegal. And I'm sure that the DPT leaders know that this is illegal. The National Assembly Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2008 forbids members of the National Assembly from fund raising. Section 54 under Chapter 7 (Role and Responsibility of the Members) specifically states that "A member shall not resort to any form of fund raising from individuals or ay agency." I've already accepted that we…

Compulsory contributions?

May 11, 2009Posted inPolitical parties
I’d promised one anonymous reader that I’d give my views on an unrelated comment on “Sustaining happiness”. This was what our anonymous reader had asked: I have been reading about the contribution of the MPs salary towards sustaining thier offices and wondered how that worked. How is accounted for in the election commission. To me, its seems like an advantage over other parties and perhaps something only DPT is capable of right now. given, that PDP has only two members even if they wanted to contribute , it wouldn't compare. The comment relates to talk about the DPT requiring…

Paying commission

December 28, 2008Posted inGovernment, Political parties1 Comment
Public anxiety over the pay hike issue is on the rise. And a lot of grief and surprise is directed at the huge increase that we, politicians, are expected to get – the pay commission has recommended an increase of 130% for the prime minister, 66% for ministers and 100% for parliamentarians. The public should be surprised. After all, the previous cabinet had already approved the draft Parliamentary Entitlement Acts and made public what aspiring politicians could expect to earn. And that was essentially Nu 30,000 per month plus 20% for house rent plus a chauffeur-driven car. Everyone knew…